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THE 
CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

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The Contents of the 
New Testament 

An Introductory Course 



BY 
HAVEN McCLURE 

(B. A., Harvard; University of Chicago; 

Secretary English Council, Indiana 

State Teachers' Association) 



N*m fork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1921 

All rights reserved, 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA 






Copyright, 192 i 
By HAVEN McCLURE 



Set up and printed. Published July, 192 1 



FERRIS 

PRINTING COMPANY 

NEW YORK CITY 



JUL 2 

;i.A622136 



PREFACE 

This book is the crystallization of a number of years' 
classroom experience in teaching the New Testament 
as an elective English course in a public high school 
of over five hundred students. The objective has been 
to present the results of the labors of the world's great- 
est Bible scholars in a manner intelligible to the 
younger mind and to the general reader. At the same 
time an effort has been made to keep in consonance 
the contents of the New Testament with the revela- 
tions of modern science, and to do this without in 
any way impairing anyone's respect for primitive 
Christianity. Approaching the subject from the de- 
tached point of view and in modern phraseology, the 
writer is pleased to have had this treatment of materi- 
als, particularly concerning the humanity of Jesus and 
of Paul, commended alike by Protestant, Catholic and 
Jew. The author desires to acknowledge an indebt- 
edness which can never be adequately repaid to O. M. 
Pittenger, Superintendent of, the Indiana State School 
for the Deaf, and to L. G. Hickman, critic teacher of 
English at Indiana University, both of whom read 
the manuscript in part, and but for whose encourage- 
ment it might never have been begun or completed; 
to Edgar J. Goodspeed, professor of New Testament 
interpretation and patristic Greek at the University of 



ii PREFACE 

Chicago, who suggested certain ideas reflected therein, 
and who read the materials concerning the Fourth 
Gospel ; and most of all to my dear friend, Clayton R. 
Bowen, professor of New Testament interpretation in 
the Meadville, Pa., Theological School, the ideal type 
of Christian scholar and gentleman, to whom more 
than any other one person the writer is forever obli- 
gated concerning New Testament criticism. Finally, 
to the many bright minds of those younger people who 
have taken the writer's course of New Testament 
study in high school, he is indebted for many sugges- 
tions that would otherwise not have been incorpor- 
ated. 
January, 1921. H. M. 



PART I 

AN ELEMENTARY INTRODUCTION TO THE 
DOCUMENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 



I. THE DOCUMENTS OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT 

A. Gospel. 

i. The Precepts of Jesus: 

a. The Matthean Tradition. 

b. The Petrine Tradition of Mark. 

c. The Petrine Tradition of Luke. 

d. The Johannine Tradition. 

B. Apostolic Narrative : 

i. The Acts of Peter and Paul. 

C. Apostolic Letters : 

i. The Pauline Letters (in time order): 

a. Thessalonians A (I Thess.) 

b. Galatians. 

c. Corinthians A (II Cor. 6:14 to 7:1). 

d. Corinthians B (I Corinthians). 

e. Corinthians C (II Cor. 10-13 inc.). 

f. Corinthians D (II Cor. 1-9, inc.). 

g. Romans (minus chapter 16). 

h. A note to Ephesus (Romans 16). 
i. Colossians (slightly revised by a later 

hand), 
j. Philemon, 
k. Philippians. 

1. Fragments of II Timothy and Titus. 
3 



4 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

2. The Catholic (or General) Letters: 

a. Hebrews (not by Paul). 

b. Thessalonians B (II Thess., pseudo- 

Pauline). 

c. Ephesians (pseudo-Pauline). 

d. Timothy A (I Tim., pseudo-Pauline). 

e. Timothy B (II Tim., pseudo-Pauline). 

f. Titus (pseudo-Pauline). 

g. I Peter (embodies Romans 12 and 13). 
h. II Peter (a revised edition of Jude). 
i. I John. 

j. II John, 
k. Ill John. 
1. James. 

m. Jude (embodied in II Peter). 
D. Apocalypse, or Revelation. 



II. WHAT IS THE NEW TESTAMENT? 

When one studies the New Testament he is not 
reading a "book," but a series of miscellaneous docu- 
ments, twenty-seven in number, which are not even 
in themselves "books" in the modern sense of that 
term. The New Testament was originally written on 
sheets or leaves of papyrus, in the Greek language, 
without any divisions into "chapters" or "verses," and 
without punctuation or capitalization of the text as 
we understand such mechanical devices in modern 
times. The word "book" or "books" as applied to 
the New Testament, in whole or in part, are merely 
terms used for the convenience of the publisher and 
printer, and of the reader. 

There could have been no NEW Testament, more- 
over, if there had not been at the times of the appear- 
ance of its documents the conscious possession on the 
part of the early church of a body of sacred writings 
known to us to-day as the OLD Testament. The 
word "testament" itself, unfortunately, is an ambigu- 
ous word with a variety of meanings ; it often refers 
in modern terminology to the making of a will, and 
it also means "contract" or "covenant." In the Bib- 
lical sense of the word "testament," God is one party 
to an agreement, and mankind to another; man agrees 
to obey and abide by the will of God in exchange for 
blessings and divine protection and guidance. In 
5 



6 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

other words, there is a reciprocal exchange of wor- 
ship and blessing. Thus the Bible deals with the 
relation of man to God. The Old Testament (or con- 
tract) was based on "the Mosaic ministry of condem- 
nation and death" told vividly in the story of Adam 
and Eve and in the giving of the Ten Commandments. 
In the appearance of the various documents of the 
New Testament, it became increasingly apparent and 
realized that God had, in the life and death of Jesus, 
made a new covenant, or contract, or testament, with 
mankind. The distinction is sharply drawn in the 
ninth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. 

In its final form the New Testament is a peculiarly 
miscellaneous, heterogeneous series of documents. 
We call it, or miscall it, a book, and take it for 
granted, most of us, without stopping to consider its 
somewhat haphazard makeup. Our fathers had it, our 
grandfathers possessed it, our ancestors owned it, and 
as Christian people we simply take it for granted. But 
there was a long time that the church did not have 
it: many Christians lived and died before it came 
into being. The church grasped firmly these docu- 
ments when brought finally into one collection, and 
did not debate or deny their authenticity, but gave 
them merely a somewhat belated ratification in the 
early councils, and settled their status by a common 
Christian consciousness rather than by scientific criti- 
cal judgments. For instance, the Letter of Jude sur- 
vived through a combination of incalculable circum- 
stances which we at this late day can no longer recon- 
struct. Galatians deals purely with a local episode 
and an obsolete problem, yet it has survived and is 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 7 

still valuable in spiritual battles, just as the song 
"America" with its lines 

"I love thy rocks and rills, 

Thy woods and templed hills," 

obviously reflects the landscape of New England with 

white meeting-houses on the hills and the sentiments 

of a Yankee parson, yet is national in patriotic appeal. 

Who wrote the New Testament ? When was it writ- 
ten? Where was it written? And why was it writ- 
ten? It is, after all, the last question that is most 
important. The authorship is purely a secondary 
affair; so is the time of its being written; so is the 
place ; and possibly no one knew these things better 
than those who wrote it. No "book" or document is 
dated ; the identity of the authors of a number of them 
is uncertain, and probably never will be known with 
assurance ; nor is it important for practical purposes 
to know absolutely. In many cases the names of the 
authors placed at the heading of certain documents 
like Hebrews, Ephesians, and the Fourth Gospel are 
merely editorial opinion, and later research and inves- 
tigation has tended to modify or to reverse the origi- 
nal verdicts. WHY these documents came into exist- 
ence is by far the greatest and most important ques- 
tion. 

Were they written under the impulse to "get into 
print," as many a modern scribbler with the literary 
scabies tries to do? Was fame the goal of the authors? 
Obviously not, because many are very unskilled in 
workmanship, such as Ephesians, Mark, and Revela- 
tion, and are written by people apparently not used 
to writing (we are now speaking of the original Greek 



8 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

texts). Each document seems to reflect some great 
urgency or vital emergency ; and no suggestion is con- 
veyed anywhere of its having been done for fame, for 
pay, or for literary practice. Moreover, one-third or 
more of the New Testament documents are anony- 
mous ; the author's name at the head of these in each 
case, as has been said before, is merely a matter of 
editorial conjecture, and on a number of these there 
is hopeless disagreement among modern scholars. 

The chief point, therefore, seems to be that for the 
most part they were written under the spell of an 
overmastering religious experience which the various 
authors wished to share with other people. This fact 
is betrayed in innumerable passages, — for instance the 
language of Paul, "The love of Christ overmasters us" 
(II Cor. 5 :i4), and in the language attributed to 
Stephen in Acts 7:55-60. Paul, in particular, is usu- 
ally most painfully excited or distressed when he 
writes ; his style is not only hurried but weighted with 
strain and stress ; and, to cap the climax, the letters 
are usually impromptu and occasional, inspired by 
some emergency which must be immediately met and 
decisively overcome, if possible. Paul's letters, there- 
fore, are primarily local and contemporary in purpose, 
but thrilled throughout as they are by a burning re- 
ligious conviction, their universal element lives on and 
appeals to the present day Christian as much as to 
the first and second century Christian. The New 
Testament, then, is not only a series of miscellaneous 
documents ; in its message it justifies the definition of 
Professor Bacon of being "the precipitate of the great- 
est period in the history of religion." 



III. THE STRUCTURE OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT 

As we have seen, the New Testament is a series of 
miscellaneous documents, twenty-seven in all, over 
one-third of which are totally anonymous. It now re- 
mains to notice that somewhat curious manner in 
which these documents are arranged as they appear 
in the New Testament in its present form. They 
obviously are not placed in the time order in which 
they are written, for if such were the case I Thessa- 
lonians and Galatians would have to come first, and 
the Fourth Gospel possibly last, which would make a 
strange looking medley to eyes accustomed to the 
traditional order of arrangement. Therefore, other 
reasons must be sought for the latter than that purely 
of time order. 

Four very similar documents in form and subject- 
matter, commonly called the Four Gospels, stand first 
in the canon, or ratified and approved list. Four Gos- 
pels ! Such a phrase would doubtless have been shock- 
ing and offensive to the ears and minds of the early 
apostles. Paul very emphatically in Galatians (i : 6-9) 
says that there is no gospel but one, and "though we, 
or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto 
you than that which we have preached unto you, let 
him be accursed," and proceeds in almost identical 
language to reiterate the statement. The Greek ver- 
sion of the New Testament is more accurate in this 
9 



io THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

respect: it has "The Gospel" with a, b, c, and d as 
the four subheads. It is well worth while to notice 
that in the English version it is "Gospel According 
To," and not "By" Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 
for the real author of the Gospel message is Jesus 
himself. The Gospel is the heart of the religious mes- 
sage of Christianity, and contains the precepts of 
Jesus with just sufficient fragmentary biographical 
details concerning his life to give an idea of the setting 
under which the words were spoken. They are not 
primarily biographies. Some of the Gospel messages 
are well done by their authors ; some are ill done ; all 
are sincere, straightforward, and vital. They are not 
loquacious, or descriptive, or laudatory, or argumen- 
tative for the benefit of the reader; they do not pre- 
tend to be purely chronicles ; they were not primarily 
written for their historical value; in fact, they are 
mainly preaching. They all have a conscious religious 
message, built on the foundations of the apostles, 
prophets, martyrs, and saints, who were all builders, 
and Jesus is the cornerstone. 

Everyone felt at the outset when the documents of 
the New Testament were collected and ratified by the 
early church councils, and before and since that no 
doubt, the supreme, unchallenged importance of the 
Gospels ; hence, they come first in the New Testa- 
ment. They do not come in chronological order, for 
no one was interested primarily in the dates of their 
composition. Matthew's Gospel stands first simply 
because it was, and still is, the most popular, the most 
widely read and quoted. We pray the Lord's Prayer 
according to Matthew, we baptize and marry to his 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT n 

words, and we naturally prefer to quote his versions 
of the parables and miracles. Renan says that this 
Gospel is the greatest book which has ever been writ- 
ten, the most important book in the history of the 
world. Mark's gospel account, probably the first to 
have been written, and used by the authors of Mat- 
thew and Luke as the basis for their Gospels, comes 
second because of its marked similarity to Matthew in 
subject-matter and arrangement of materials, and be- 
cause both are generally considered to have been writ- 
ten by Jews. Luke's Gospel resembles its two pre- 
decessors to quite an extent, but differs from them 
sharply in adding brand new materials ; hence, it is 
placed third in the canon. John's Gospel is last in 
order because of the universal consciousness on the 
part of the early church of its lateness in point of 
time. The first three Gospels are commonly desig- 
nated the Synoptic Gospels because they "see together" 
or from a common standpoint the principal facts of 
the life of Jesus. The Fourth Gospel is theology. 
Clement of Alexandria, one of the early church fath- 
ers, says that the synoptic writers wrote "bodily facts," 
but that John wrote a spiritual summary to crown 
those facts. As an example of the curious guesswork 
indulged by traditional New Testament expositors, 
some former commentators have said that Mark and 
Luke's Gospels, their authors not being apostles of 
the original twelve, have been "taken between" Mat- 
thew and John as pupils or proteges, as it were, which 
accounts for the position of these two Gospels in the 
canon, and for that of all four in their respective po- 
sitions. 



12 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The Acts - of the Apostles comes after the Gospel as 
a sort of bridge between Jesus and the apostles, and 
as a connecting link between the gospel message itself 
and the epistles written by missionary apostles to 
churches and individuals. "Acts" here is an extremely 
awkward word. Whose acts? The Germans say "die 
Apostelgeschichte," or "Apostles' Acts," emphasizing 
the first word, but this does not remove the difficulty. 
Are they the acts of all the apostles? Except for a 
few subordinate labors of Philip and Barnabas and 
Stephen, the document concerns mainly Peter and 
Paul. All New Testament scholars have noted how 
the name of John is "peppered" into the Book of Acts 
in connection with that of Peter. The expression 
"Peter and John" occurs at least eight times, and 
"Peter with John" once; but the reader notices that 
Peter does all the talking while John is present in 
name only. As someone has said, "John acts like a 
stowaway." An accurate title for this document more 
nearly, then, would be "The Acts of Peter and Paul." 

As to the Pauline epistles, Romans and Corinthians 
were certainly not the first of Paul's letters and Phile- 
mon last in order of writing, but these letters are ar- 
ranged in the New Testament in order of length. 
Romans has sixteen "chapters," which is a longer 
letter than most of us have ever written, and little 
Philemon brings up the rear of the procession. Was 
Hebrews written by Paul? If so, it would logically 
come between First and Second Corinthians. If not 
by the hand of Paul, it is precisely where it belongs, — 
the first and longest of the catholic (universal, general) 
letters. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 13 

Not everyone is agreed, after reading Revelation, 
as to just what is revealed, but it is said to be "things 
the must shortly come to pass" (Rev. 1:1, the word 
"shortly" being an elastic word, of course). At least 
four diverse views are held by those who attempt an 
interpretation of this document, which is written in 
very bad Greek. The futurist interpreter believes the 
whole of it refers to events connected with the second 
coming of Jesus and the "end of the world." The 
historical interpreter professes to find pictorial de- 
scriptions of events dotted over the face of history 
from the early days of the church to the "end of the 
world." For instance, the various beasts of the book 
have been identified with such characters as Luther, 
Napoleon, and the last Kaiser of Germany. The spir- 
itual interpreter understands the document's symbolism 
to typify some good or evil principle common to every 
age of the world, much after the manner of Spenser's 
"Faerie Queen," which attempts the same thing. The 
preterist interpreter, which includes the majority of 
modern, unbiased scholars, finds in the book a reflec- 
tion of the conditions prevailing at the time of its 
writing. All recent evidence tends to prove that the 
reader of the second century saw more in the book 
than we do now. The New Testament of the Greek 
Orthodox Church rejects this document as apocryphal, 
and refuses it a place in the canon, which serves fur- 
ther to show the many-sidedness of the controversy 
which has raged for centuries about the authenticity 
and meaning: of the document. 



IV. THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 

We have seen in our examination of the New Testa- 
ment documents that there are four very similar docu- 
ments standing in the front of the procession, com- 
monly known as the Four Gospels ; that the expres- 
sion "four gospels" would have been in all probability 
highly offensive to the ears of the early Apostles, since 
Paul says in Galatians i : 6-8 that there is no gospel 
but one, of which Jesus is the author; that because 
of their supreme, unchallenged importance they come 
first in the New Testament, and not because they were 
written first, for they were not. Paul's letters were 
the first New Testament documents to see the light 
of day. The Gospel is the heart of the religious mes- 
sage of Christianity, and consists of the precepts of 
Jesus to his followers, with an idea of the circum- 
stances under which they were uttered. Some are 
well-done ; some are ill-done ; all are sincere, straight- 
forward, and vital. They do not pretend to be chroni- 
cles ; they do not profess to have been written primar- 
ily for their historical value; they are mainly preach- 
ing. There is a great deal of gospel in the Book of 
Acts. The Gospel in its four divisions all have a 
conscious religious message, built on the foundation 
14 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 15 

of the apostles, prophets, martyrs, and saints, who 
were all builders, and Jesus is the cornerstone. By 
the time the remaining documents of the New Testa- 
ment are written, the church is built on Jesus not, as 
originally, the whole foundation, but upon the fol- 
lowers of Jesus as well. 

We have pointed out that many of the New Testa- 
ment documents are apparently written by men not 
much used to writing, and that some of them betray 
this artlessness. For instance, Mark is fond of the 
word "straightway," which occurs forty-two times in 
his gospel, and eleven times (in Greek) in Chapter 1 
alone. It is a breathless way of saying, — "and then," 
— "and then," — "and then," — to make the narrative in 
some manner crudely coherent. In Matthew 21 : 7, in 
speaking of Jesus riding the animal of the Triumphant 
Entry, the Greek version amazingly reads as follows : 
"And they brought the ass, and the colt, and put on 
them their clothes, and set him ON THEM." In 
Luke's Gospel, Jesus leaves Galilee to go to Jerusa- 
lem in 9:51. In 9:52 we find him in Samaria. In 
10 : 38, he has entered a "certain village" where Mary 
and Martha live. In 13 : 32, he went "through the 
cities and villages, journeying toward Jerusalem." In 
17: 11, the following somewhat astonishing statement 
is made : "And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusa- 
lem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and 
Galilee"! In 19: 1 he has entered Jericho, in verse 29, 
Bethany, and in verses 41-45, finally into Jerusalem. 
Nine chapters ! What Luke has done, of course, is to 
have found suddenly that he had on hand a bulk of 
materials about the ministry of Jesus given nowhere 



16 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

else, and he crushes it into his narrative in these chap- 
ters. It is painful from the literary standpoint, but 
from the religious, of course, is relatively unimpor- 
tant. In Luke 16: 16-18, some interpolations are in- 
troduced which have nothing to do with the rest of 
the entire chapter, which has excited some wonder 
among scholars. 

We talk very confidently of the authors of the Four 
Gospels, just as though we were certain of their iden- 
tity. Yet every Gospel is anonymous, and the author 
gives no clue as to his person. The writers are as- 
toundingly self-effacing. Therefore, it is better to 
say, as does Bacon, not the Gospel according to Mat- 
thew, which after all is only a tradition, but "The 
Matthean Tradition of the Precepts of Jesus," which 
is an accurate, scholarly title, and impairs in no man- 
ner the religious value of the document. Similarly, 
Mark and Luke, for reasons which will presently ap- 
pear, may be called the Petrine Tradition, and the 
Fourth Gospel, the Johannine Tradition. 

THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM 

The differences in the first three gospels are not as 
surprising as their likenesses when they are read side 
by side by means of a harmony. The common picture 
of the earthly life of Jesus behind the Synoptics must 
be quite close to the original. All three give the pre- 
cepts and biographical fragments of Jesus' life in prac- 
tically the same time order; often their phraseology is 
strikingly similar; and out of a grand total of 2890 
verses in all three gospels, 450 verses are virtually 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 17 

identical in thought and language. A close relation- 
ship, therefore, must surely exist among the three. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF MARK'S GOSPEL 

Although Matthew's Gospel has always been the 
most popular, and has therefore stood first among all 
the New Testament documents, in recent years the 
attention of Bible scholars has been turned more and 
more to Mark's Gospel. It is the shortest of the three, 
and very naturally serves as the starting-point in com- 
paring the Synoptics. Comparison has revealed that 
fifteen-sixteenths of Mark, — nearly all, — is embodied 
in Matthew, and almost as much in Luke. Since this 
is indisputable, Mark's Gospel may very appropriately 
be denominated the "Cinderella Gospel," which for 
years has lain among the ashes of neglect while its 
more elaborate sisters have carried off the palms of 
praise and attention, but which now has finally come 
into its own as probably the most important of all 
New Testament documents. For without Mark, there 
could have been no Matthew and Luke, in their pres- 
ent form at least. Because Mark writes a blunt, jour- 
nalistic, brief, pictorial style, after the Mark Twain 
fashion, he was called in the early church, "Old Stub- 
Finger," and his gospel the "Stub-Fingered Gospel." 
If Mark is the oldest Gospel, and the basis for the 
other three, where did he get his material? An an- 
cient church father of the first century, Papias, bishop 
of Hierapolis, according to Eusebius, says, "Mark, 
being the interpreter of Peter, wrote down what things 
he remembered that the Lord had said or done," and 
goes on to say that they are not in time order, but 



18 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

that nothing important is omitted. Peter could not 
speak Greek, and used Mark as his interpreter to the 
Greek-speaking audiences of the West. Mark had 
recounted them over and over, and when "the living 
document," Peter, was dead, Mark sat down and wrote 
down "what he remembered," which accounts in full 
for the rough, informal, descriptive, miscellaneous 
character of his document. The death of the Apostle 
Peter was the event that precipitated the writing of 
the first Gospel. The Gospel of Mark has aptly been 
called "The Memoirs of the Apostle Peter." Curi- 
ously enough, everything is written from the stand- 
point of the Apostle Peter : everything happens when 
Peter is present; Peter does considerable talking; 
Jesus talks chiefly to Peter. It is honestly done, for 
Jesus' rebukes of Peter are given with their original 
vigor. Mark merely draws back the curtain on the 
life drama he is recording. He is wholly neutral and 
unemotional. Had he commented personally on his 
Gospel, he probably would have played havoc with his 
materials. He is non-theological and objective. So 
much cannot be said for Matthew and Luke, who 
color their narratives to suit special purposes. 

Finally it may be said that if Mark had any model 
in mind for his Gospel narrative, it was probably I and 
II Kings of the Old Testament. For wherever Mark 
is able, he parallels the life of Jesus with that of Elisha 
and Elijah. 

THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW AND LUKE 

A comparison of Matthew and Luke shows that both 
do two things: (i) They follow Mark's narrative; 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 19 

and (2) they have materials common to each other not 
given by Mark. This second material is called by all 
New Testament scholars Q, which is the initial letter 
of the German word "Quelle," meaning simply 
"source." Therefore, algebraically we may say, 

Matthew = Mark -f- Q. 

A further examination will show that Luke has, in 
addition to Q, an infancy narrative not given by Mat- 
thew, and a section called the Perean Section which 
describes the trip to Jerusalem previously discussed, 
and which contains the Parables of the Prodigal Son, 
the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Good Samaritan, etc., 
which are given alone by Luke. Therefore, in express- 
ing Luke algebraically it is necessary to say, 

Luke = Mark -\- Q -J- an Infancy Narrative -f- a 
Perean Section. 

But what is Q? The answer is briefly that Q is 
simply a document, now lost, containing a Collection 
of the Sayings of Jesus. Matthew and Luke wrote 
with Mark's narrative and this document lying before 
them. Q contains, for instance, the Sermon of. John 
the Baptizer (Matt. 3 : 7-12 and Luke 3 : 7-9 and 16, 
17) ; the Temptation Dialogue (Matt. 4: 3-10 and Luke 
4: 3-12) ; the Sermon on the Mount, which contains the 
Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6 and Luke 11) ; the Parables by 
the Lakeside (Matt. 13 and Luke 13); and the Invec- 
tive against the Pharisees (Matt. 23 and Luke 11). 
These, it will be noticed, are collections of precepts 
and sayings. Therefore, if one were asked, How many 
times, and where, does the Lord's Prayer occur in the 
New Testament? our above algebraic formula, if re- 
called, will solve our memory problem. Since it is Q 



20 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

material, the Lord's Prayer will be found twice in 
the New Testament, — in Matthew and Luke. These 
are important principles for students of the New Tes- 
tament, who should be sure that they understand them 
before leaving them. In our study of certain problems 
of the life of Jesus, we shall refer to these formulas 
again. 

A TRADITIONAL VIEW OF THE FOUR 
GOSPELS AND THEIR AUTHORS 

(i) MATTHEW.— What little we know of the tra- 
ditional Matthew is confined to the four Gospels, and 
they give but little. He was originally known as Levi, 
son of Alphaeus (Matt. 9:9; Mark 2: 14). His occu- 
pation previous to his discipleship was that of a pub- 
lican, or tax-gatherer, collecting passenger-tolls from 
the sea of Galilee (Matt. 9:9). After this farewell 
feast to his list of friends at his house in Capernaum 
(Luke 5: 29), his name only appears in the list of the 
twelve, usually in connection with that of Thomas, 
who, like Matthew, was of a practical turn of mind 
(John 20:24-25). Simon Greenleaf, late professor of 
evidence in the Harvard Law School, commends the 
far-sighted wisdom of Jesus in selecting Matthew as a 
disciple. Here was a business man, a hated Roman 
tax-ferret, shrewd, calculating, cool, level-headed, and 
not liable to believe what he could not plainly see and 
hear. Yet Matthew wrote "the most important book 
which has ever been written," according to Ernest 
Renan (1823-1892), a French Orientalist, and a schol- 
arly observer. According to Harnack, a German au- 
thority, the Gospel According to St. Matthew was 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 21 

written probably about 75 A. D. Matthew's Gospel 
was written primarily to the Jews, because : 

(a) He traces the ancestry of Jesus only back as 
far as Abraham, father of the Jewish race, while Luke 
traces it clear back to Adam, father of both Jew and 
Gentile. This was done probably as a concession to 
Jewish prejudice, and to maintain the sympathy of his 
readers. 

(b) Matthew never stops to explain Jewish terms 
and customs, for all Jews who read knew them al- 
ready (e. g., Matt. 5:22). 

(c) Matthew constantly and tactfully quotes the 
Old Testament to prove the Messiahship of Jesus. 

(d) Matthew, knowing the Jews to be a race of 
students, devotes much space to the Sermon on the 
Mount (Matt. 5, 6, and 7), and much to parables and 
eschatology (end of the world). 

(e) Matthew exalts Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, and 
emphasizes his Jewish characteristics more than the 
other Gospels. 

(2) MARK. — The Gospel of Mark is the earliest and 
the shortest gospel, having been written about 70 
A. D. according to St. Jerome and other early church 
fathers. Mark, or John Mark, first appears in the New 
Testament in Acts 12:12. His mother's name was 
Mary, a well-to-do and benevolent Christian of the 
early dangerous days of the church. Mark started 
with his relative, Barnabas, and Paul (Col. 4: 10) on 
their first missionary journey, but for some reason, 
commonly inferred as timidity, Mark turned back at 
Perga (Acts 12:25 and 13:13), much to Paul's dis- 
gust (Acts 15 : 36-40). Paul and Mark were afterward 



22 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

reconciled (Col. 4:10; Philemon 24; II Timothy 4: 
11), but thereafter Mark seems to have been a sort of 
private secretary to the apostle Peter (I Peter 5: 13), 
at whose dictation he wrote facts of his Gospel. Mark's 
Gospel was written primarily to the Romans, because : 

(a) Mark writes a terse, brief, Latin style. His gos- 
pel is short, and not a word is wasted. It is essen- 
tially a vivid narrative of action. 

(b) Mark stops to explain Hebrew terms and cus- 
toms (Mark 3: 17; 5 : 41 ; 7 : 1-11 ; 15: 34). Money is 
reduced to Roman units of currency (Mark 12:42; 
14:5). See also Mark 13 : 3. 

(c) Mark quotes the Old Testament very seldom. 

(d) Mark holds up Jesus as a King - , having power 
over both the visible and invisible worlds, not as a 
prophet. 

(e) Mark appeals to Roman civilization as nearly 
on its own level as possible. The Romans worshipped 
power, and Mark gives a narrative of action and 
mighty deeds on the part of Jesus, as much as is pos- 
sible from the nature of his subject-matter. 

(3) LUKE. — The author of the third Gospel may 
have been Luke, "the beloved physician" (Col. 4: 14; 
II Tim. 4: n ; Philemon 24), and narrator of the Acts 
of the Apostles (Compare Luke 1:3 with Acts 1:1). 
He accompanied Paul through Macedonia (Acts 16: 
10; 20:6), back to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4, 15), and to 
Rome (Acts 27:2), as told by the "We-Sections" of 
the Book of Acts. Luke apparently was a converted 
Greek of high culture and broad sympathy, and like 
Matthew, a close observer. Dr. Hobart's treatise on 
"The Medical Language of St. Luke" endeavors to 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 23 

show that Luke goes into more detail concerning the 
physical condition of sufferers who came to Jesus for 
relief (Luke 8:29; 8:43); and that he alone records 
the apparent bloody sweat in Gethsemane (Luke 22: 
44). Luke has also been called the Social-Evangelist, 
for he records more concerning the teaching of Jesus 
in its social implications than the other three. Luke's 
Gospel was written primarily to the Greeks, because: 

(a) Luke himself was a Greek, and addresses his 
Gospel and the Book of Acts to his Greek friend, 
Theophilus (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1). 

(b) Luke's Gospel in the original Greek is written 
in the purest and most literary Greek of the four Gos- 
pels, and has a distinct literary preface (Luke 1 : 1-5). 
It is also more literary in that it shows more scholarly, 
painstaking research than the other Evangelists (Luke 
1 : 3, 4). Over half of Luke's Gospel comprises ma- 
terial recorded by him alone. 

(c) Luke appeals to the cultured, philosophical, 
beauty-loving Greek mind. He alone records the five 
earliest Christian hymns : 

I. "The Ave Maria": (Luke 1 : 28-33). 

II. "The Magnificat": (Luke 1 : 46-55). 

III. "The Benedictus": (Luke 1:68-79). 

IV. "The Gloria in Excelsis" : (Luke 2 : 13, 14). 
V. "The Nunc Dimittis": (Luke 2:29-32). 

Witness also the exquisite description of the First 
Christmas (Luke 2:8-15). 

(d) Luke traces the ancestry of Jesus back to 
Adam, ancestor of Gentile as well as Jew. 

(e) Luke appeals directly to the Greek outlook on 
life. 



V. THE COMPOSITION AND CONTENT OF 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL 

A comparison of the Fourth Gospel with the Synop- 
tic Gospels reveals some startling facts. The most 
startling, perhaps, of all, is the fact that the Jesus of 
the Fourth Gospel is strangely and incredibly differ- 
ent from the Synoptic Jesus. This fact has led mod- 
ern scholars to suspect that the Fourth Gospel is, in 
reality, not an historic presentation of the life of Jesus. 
"John perceived that the bodily (physical) Gospels 
had been written, and so wrote the spiritual Gospel," 
says Clement of Alexandria, and his successor, Origen. 
This may account for the fact that the Fourth Gospel 
contains so little of the Synoptic materials. It is ut- 
terly different in character and viewpoint, which leads 
us to ask, Is John moving in another field entirely, or 
is he giving us a new set of facts? Is it body versus 
body, or body versus spirit that must guide us in in- 
terpreting this document? Probably the latter. Was 
it written by a disciple of Jesus, namely the Apostle 
John, as the traditionalists and conservatives main- 
tain? Let us examine the document critically and 
analytically, and then draw, if we can, an unbiased 
conclusion. If Mark's Gospel, which is the basis of 
the other two Synoptics, is the transscribed record of 
an eye-witness (the Apostle Peter) of the whole min- 
24 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 25 

istry of Jesus, — then if the Fourth Gospel is the rec- 
ord of another apostle (John) also an eye-witness, the 
two must inevitably record the essential doctrines as 
spoken from the lips of Jesus without any fundamen- 
tal variance. 

1. The Fourth Gospel contains no parables (unless 

in chapter 15 a somewhat rarefied form of one). 

2. It contains no exorcisms (casting out of devils). 

3. The word "pray" does not occur in the Greek at 

all, the word "talk" being used throughout. 

4. The word "preach" does not occur. 

5. The word "gospel" nowhere occurs. 

6. The noun "hope" does not occur. 

7. The word "wisdom" is never used. 

8. The word "faith" is never used. 

9. There is no concept of? "serving" or "service." 

10. There is no reference of sympathy for the "poor" 

(rather the opposite: see John 12: 5-8). 

11. "Love" occurs seven times as a noun, but only 

in the sense of affection for personal friends or 
acquaintances ; (in the Synoptics this word oc- 
curs but once: Jesus "loved" the Rich Young 
Ruler). 

12. The word "know" (gnosco) occurs fifty-five 

times, and is made the sole basis of salvation. 

13. The word "believe" occurs ninety-nine times and 

is made the sole basis of salvation. 
(If the reader will go through the Gospel 
carefully and underline this word and its 
grammatical variations with red ink, he will 
have the key as to the interpretation, purpose, 



26 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and the nationality of its author disclosed, as 
will be pointed out presently). 

14. The word "Messiah" in this Gospel is not Jew- 

ish in scope, but means simply "Son of God." 

15. There is no baptism unto remission of sins. 

16. John the Baptist is merely called John. 

17. There is no Sermon on the Mount. 

18. The Synoptics have an open-air, outdoor land- 

scape and atmosphere of bird, tree, flower, 
grain, sheep, oxen, sunset: but John is aca- 
demic and intellectual in tone. 

19. Moreover, the audience and spectators upon 

whose ears his messages fall and before whose 
eyes his deeds are performed is not the Synop- 
tic audience of, publican, sinner, harlot, Sad- 
duccee, widow, scribe, or child : the auditors, 
environment, words, works, are all different. 
The audience, in fact, is commonly referred to 
as "the Jews," — surely a strange and unnec- 
essary designation. 

20. With the possible three exceptions of the mir- 

acles of the Loaves and Fishes, Walking on 
the Water, and the Healing of the Nobleman's 
Son, the miracles performed in the Fourth 
Gospel are not mentioned in the Synoptics. 

21. In the Fourth Gospel Jesus speaks a new mes- 

sage, uses a new vocabulary, and assumes a new 
attitude toward mankind. He is not a Galilean 
Jesus or a missionary to the Jews, but their 
antagonist in attitude and language. 

22. In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus, in violent contrast 

to his Synoptic attitude, rebukes people who 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 27 

want miracles performed (e. g. hL mother at 
Cana, 3:4; the Nobleman, 4 : 48 ; the sisters of 
Lazarus, 11:40). On the other hand he vol- 
unteers to perform them without being re- 
quested (e. g. the Lame Man at the Pool of 
Bethesda, 5:6; Feeding the Multitude, 6:5; 
the Blind Man, 9:3). They are not acts of 
pity, but proofs of his own deity and divinity. 
Natural affection is practically trodden upon. 
In other words, whereas in the Synoptics the 
cure is made dependent on faith, in the Fourth 
Gospel faith is made dependent on the cure, — 
a complete reversal of the process. 

23. The Jesus of the Fourth Gospel is largely self- 

centered, egocentric. There is little or no 
kingdom of God or brotherhood of man doc- 
trine. The phrase "the kingdom of God" or 
"of heaven" occurs fifty-five times in Matthew ; 
if the Fourth Gospel was written by a disciple 
of Jesus, how could he ignore the central doc- 
trine of Jesus in the first three Gospels? 

24. In the Fourth Gospel Jesus is ever talking of 

himself and his peculiar relationship to man 
and to God. He is primarily "the expounder 
of his own person." In fact, the pronoun "ego" 
in Greek occurs one hundred and fifty-five 
times apart from the verb in this document. 
In the Synoptics it is nearly always included 
in the first personal conjungation of the verb 
in Greek, as it also nearly always is in the Latin 
language. 

25. Dealing further with this peculiar egoism of the 



28 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Fourth Gospel, we have the seven great "I 
Am's" (John 6:3558:12; 10:7; 10:11; 1 1 : 25 ; 
14 : 6 ; 15 : 1 ). These are plainly allegories used 
instead of parables in Jesus' debates with the 
Jews. 

26. In the Fourth Gospel there is no communion- 

service or "eating of flesh" in the Synoptic or 
Jewish sense. 

27. Jesus washes his disciples' feet AFTER supper 

instead of before (13:4, 5), a violation of the 
Oriental custom. 

28. There is no Transfiguration story. 

29. There is no doctrine of the Second Coming. 

30. There is no Garden of Gethsemane story. 

31. Salvation is not based on the death of Jesus, as 

is the theology of Paul and the Synoptic writ- 
ers, but upon the life of Jesus. 

32. Righteousness is not in doing, as in the Synop- 

tics, but in believing and accepting. Con- 
versely, Sin consists in disbelief and ignorance. 

33. Salvation comes through knowledge and accept- 

ance. 

34. Judgment is present, according to this Gospel, 

not future (12: 31). 

35. The Fourth Gospel is a gospel of a few great 

ideas which are flung at the reader again and 
again : Incarnation, Regeneration, Revelation, 
and Illumination. The Incarnation of the pro- 
logue represents Jesus as the goal of Greek 
philosophy. The divine Logos has been em- 
bodied in human life. It is not the death but 
the life of Jesus that is the source of salvation : 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 29 

it is the communication of life to life, the con- 
tagion of life. 

36. John's Gospel is an attempt to marry reason and 

revelation, and an effort to relate faith (relig- 
ious experience) to knowledge (experience in 
the world, or in externalities). 

37. The Fourth Evangelist has a dual conception of 

the character of Jesus which he keeps in ad- 
mirable balance: (1) Metaphysical, or the pre- 
existent, supernatural, incarnated Jesus ; and 
(2) the religious Jesus, who brings life to men. 

38. It will be seen from (31) to (37) inclusive, above, 

that these concepts are typically Greek, not 
Jewish. The perfunctory reader of this Gospel 
may be startled to discover that it is a deliber- 
ate, splendid effort to do away with the neces- 
sity of a Judaistic conception of salvation, or 
rather, becoming a Christian through a Juda- 
istic entrance to Christianity. 

39. Finally, as Professor Bacon says, "The whole 

group of Johannine literature combats Doke- 
tism, an obnoxious form of Gnostic heresy 
which sprang up at the end of the first cen- 
tury, repudiating the historicity of Jesus, and 
stigmatizing his whole career as a phantasm 
(dokesis). First and Second John (the Epis- 
tles) openly denounce Doketism, while the 
Gospel of John shows opposition to it only in 
the more careful statement of the Evangelist's 
exact meaning." x 

1 B. W. Bacon, "The Making of the New Testament" (Henry 
Holt & Co., 1912), p. 23, et seq. 



30 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

40. Professor E. F. Scott, of New York, the leading 

modern authority on this Gospel and its inter- 
pretation, defines it as "an effort to translate 
Christianity into Greek terms, and to trans- 
plant Christianity into Greek thought." 

41. Turning from the contents of the Fourth Gospel 

which we find to be theological rather than 
biographical or historical, to its form, again 
we discover startling differences between it 
and the Synoptics, or Jewish literature in gen- 
eral. It is highly significant to note that in 
form it is mainly dialogue. Here, the life of 
Jesus will bear an analogy to that of Socrates 
as far as their biographers are concerned, Xeno- 
phon's "Memorabilia" being the Synoptic life 
of Socrates, and Plato's "Dialogues" being the 
Johannine version. 

42. Some authors conceive the Fourth Gospel to be 

modelled after a Greek drama; the curtain 
rising on the wild ravines of the Jordan River, 
after the Heavenly prologue has been given, 
presenting the rugged figure of the Baptist, 
who announces himself merely as a passing 
character, and his ministry as a transitory 
event, compared to that which is to follow. 
The hero (Jesus), his followers, and his vil- 
ainous opponents (the Jews) who are ever 
conspiring against his life, lurking back in the 
shadows of the stage, and emerging finally vic- 
torious (the Crucifixion), after repeated and 
humiliating defeats, comprise the dramatic tri- 
angle. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 31 

Did, then, the Apostle John write the Fourth Gos- 
pel in accordance with ancient tradition? The pre- 
sumption is strongly against such a belief. The docu- 
ment is unmistakably Greek in thought, language, 
tone, and form. With the Apostle John as author, as 
Bacon says, it is necessary to suppose that John, after 
migrating to Ephesus, underwent a transformation so 
complete as to make him in reality another man ; and 
to attribute to this Galilean peasant an extreme degree 
of Philonic abstraction." 1 Compare, for instance, 
Jesus' intercessory prayer of John 17 to the Lord's 
Prayer in length, practicality, and ethical content. 
Another serious objection to the traditional Johannine 
authorship is to be found by appealing to the Synop- 
tics for information concerning the Apostle John, who 
has been somewhat dubiously identified with the "Be- 
loved Disciple" of the Fourth Gospel. Mark 3:17 
identifies James and John, the sons of Zebedee and 
Salome, as being surnamed by Jesus as Boanerges, 
"Sons of Thunder," because of their fervor and elo- 
quence. In Luke 9: 54, 55, a fiery, impetuous, revenge- 
ful spirit is shown, somewhat inconsistent with the 
clinging vine disciple of John 13 : 23, who appears for 
the first time only during the last twenty-four hours 
of the life of Jesus. More serious than these two in- 
stances, however, is the implication of Matthew 20: 
20-23, which his readers gathered as fact by reading 
between the lines, that James and John did not long 
survive Jesus in this earthly life. 

Inadvertently, John 21 : 24 refers to the authorship 

1 Ibid : pp. 212-213. 



32 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of the Fourth Gospel by the pronoun "we," using the 
Beloved Disciple as a literary tool, much as Koheleth 
used Solomon as a poetic monologuist in writing the 
book of Ecclesiastes. This form of pseudonymity was 
a common literary device of the ancient world. Says 
John 21 : 24 in part, "And we (the Ephesian editors, 
pupils, and successors of the Beloved Disciple) know 
that his (the Beloved Disciple's) testimony is true." 
The difficulty of identifying the author is of the book's 
own creation, somewhat purposely, we suspect. 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. The 
Fourth Gospel is a restatement of Christianity in 
Greek terms, for Greeks, and by Greeks. This fact in 
nowise impairs or reduces its religious value and im- 
portance. It is not the author of the book but the 
book itself that counts. Martin Luther has said: 
"Whatever preaches Christ, that is apostolic, be it 
Judas, or Annas, or Pilate, or Herod; and whatever 
preaches not Christ is not apostolic, be it Peter, or 
James, or John, or Paul." 

The best consensus of ancient tradition and modern 
scholarship fixes the date of the document as probably 
no A. D. 



PART I : APPENDIX A. THE NEW TESTA- 
MENT MANUSCRIPTS 

Where do we get the original text of our New Tes- 
tament? There are in existence three very ancient 
manuscripts which answer this question for us. They 
are: 

I. The Vatican Manuscript. This most ancient 
of manuscripts has lain for five centuries in 
the Vatican at Rome, and is one of the 
precious treasures, of course, of the Roman 
Catholic Church. For hundreds of years the 
popes of Rome forbade scholars to examine 
it. Pope Pius IX, however, one of the most 
liberal pontifical authorities, finally ordered 
fac-similes made of it, which are now in the 
greater public libraries of all the world. The 
Vatican Manuscript is a vellum folio about 
a foot square, containing between 600 and 
700 leaves, each page having three columns ; 
and the text is Greek, printed in capital let- 
ters throughout without spacing the words, 
which makes it difficult to read. Of the New 
Testament text, Mark 16:9-20 is missing in 
the original, although a spurious version is 
given, marked in the margin as doubtful 
(this is the primitive Gospel account of the 
33 



34 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Resurrection of Jesus) ; and all the text after 
Hebrews 9 : 14 is gone. 
II. The Sinaitic Manuscript. This manuscript was 
discovered in May, 1844, by Constantin 
Tischendorf, a great German scholar, in St. 
Catherine's Convent at the base of Mt. 
Sinai, whither he had gone on a research 
mission. The monks refused to allow him 
to carry away more than a leaf or two out 
of the basket of old manuscripts ; and for 
over fifteen years he strove vainly to get 
permission and assistance in getting pos- 
session of these precious documents. Fin- 
ally, in 1859, he received authority from the 
Emperor of Russia, and recovered the manu- 
scripts, which at last accounts were in the 
Library of Petrograd. In this document 
again Mark 16:9-20 is missing. It has four 
columns to a page. 
III. The Alexandrian Manuscript. This, the young- 
est of the three major manuscripts, was pre- 
sented to Charles I in 1628 by the Patriarch 
of Constantinople, seventeen years too late 
to be of service in the King James Version 
of 161 1. It has two columns to a page, and 
much of the materials are missing or de- 
• fective. 



PART II 



JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD 



II. JESUS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD 

i. The Birth of Its Founder. — Jesus, who is com- 
monly called the Christ, was born in Bethlehem of 
Judea, a tiny village about six miles southeast of 
Jerusalem. The exact date of his birth is altogether 
uncertain, but by almost universal traditional agree- 
ment it has been set at December 25, 6 or 4 B. C. The 
father of Jesus (Luke 2:48) was Joseph, a poor car- 
penter of Nazareth in Galilee, and through him the 
first and third Gospel writers trace back the ancestry 
of Jesus (Matt. 1:1-16; Luke 3:23-38). His mother 
was Mary, an attractive but humble and devout wo- 
man, and Jesus was her first-born son (Luke 2:7), 
the eldest of a family which was to comprise at least 
four more sons, James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude, and 
two or more sisters (Matt. i$\ 55, 56; Mark 6:3). 
The parents of Jesus were in Bethlehem at the time 
of his birth to pay a poll-tax exacted from Jewish 
subjects by Augustus Caesar, emperor of Rome 31 
B. C.-14 A. D. In conformity with an ancient Jewish 
custom the tax was paid not in the regular place of 
residence, but in the town where one's ancestors had 
originally lived as members of the twelve tribes of 
Israel. Thus Jesus was born near the spot where his 
distinguished ancestress, Ruth, was wed to Boaz 
37 



38 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

(Ruth 4: 10), and where his regal forbear, David, kept 
his father Jesse's sheep a thousand years before (I 
Sam. 16: 11). Due to the congestion in the inn at 
Bethlehem, Jesus appears to have been born in a 
nearby limestone cavern which served as a stable, in 
a rude trough from which horses, camels, and mules 
were fed, — a fact curiously prophetic of a life which 
was to be lived through its all too brief span in de- 
mocracy and poverty. Many beautiful traditions have 
clustered about the birth of the Founder of Christian- 
ity, some of which have been recorded by the Gospel 
writers, among them being the chorus of the heavenly 
host, the appearances of angels to persons most im- 
mediately concerned, and the doctrine of the virgin 
birth; but it must be recalled in this connection that 
the writers of the Gospel narratives lived in an ancient 
Jewish atmosphere of angelology and demonology, 
and have recorded what they believed at the time to 
have been literal fact. In the references previously 
noted it will be observed that nowhere does the New 
Testament disavow that Joseph was not really the 
father of Jesus. 

2. The Ancestry of Jesus. — In modern times science 
has been exploring the domain of heredity, genetics, 
and eugenics with eminently successful results. The 
study of man's life is no longer complete without some 
knowledge of his ancestral influences. The well- 
known studies of the Edwards, Jukes, and Kallikak 
families has revealed the fact that "good blood" and 
"bad blood" are realities, — that not only physical traits 
but mental characteristics and moral tendencies are 
passed down from one generation to the next. In a 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 39 

very literal manner the sins of the parents are visited 
on the children to the third and fourth generation, but 
fortunately so are their virtues. It is not so hard to 
explain the apparent enigma of Abraham Lincoln when 
we discover that one of his progenitors was a grad- 
uate of Harvard College, and another a judge in the 
Massachusetts courts. Jesus of Nazareth was derived 
from the best line of ancestry that the world has ever 
known. Among the members of his family tree were 
Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Ja- 
cob, and Judah, according to Luke's genealogy; and 
Boaz and Ruth, David, Solomon, Asa, Jehosaphat, 
Zerubbabel, and Amos and Nahum, according to Mat- 
thew's. The discrepancy in the two genealogies after 
David has been named in each has never been satis- 
factorily explained, but doubtless one or the other is 
inaccurate. Kings, priests, pioneers, statesmen, schol- 
ars, and prophets and poets are among the celebrities 
numbered in the family history of Jesus. From Ruth 
may he not have inherited the determination to "set 
his face steadfastly toward Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51)? 
From Abraham "who went out, not knowing whither 
he was going, to look for the city which has founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God," that scorn of 
"safety first" embodied in the words, "If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his 
cross and follow me" and "For whosoever will save 
his life shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25, 26)? 

3. The Life of Jesus Prior to His Ministry. — The 
sentence of premature death was passed upon Jesus 
in less than twenty-four hours after his birth. Of the 
group that gathered around the infant in the first week 



40 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of his life, the shepherds, Simeon, Anna, and the 
scholars from the East, came to bless and wish him 
well, but as in the story of the sleeping princess, there 
came also one sinister, malignant face masked with 
hypocritical cunning to curse and to ruin. In a con- 
vulsion of anxiety the parents of Jesus fled precipi- 
tately into Egypt, where possibly they may have had 
relatives, and returned to Nazareth only after having 
ascertained that all danger was past, for Herod died 
soon after their flight. At Nazareth Jesus lived in 
obscurity and poverty, obtaining the synagogue edu- 
cation of his station in life, and working at the car- 
penter's bench with his father. Every Jewish boy 
must learn a manual trade irrespective of his academic 
training, and everywhere in his language Jesus betrays 
a working-class consciousness. After the only re- 
corded incident of his youth (Luke 2:41-52), it seems 
that Joseph died, leaving to his eldest son the task 
of supporting his mother and the rather large family 
of brothers and sisters. Until he was thirty years old, 
Jesus must have labored long and well at the car- 
penter's trade, and frequently in his later precepts he 
uses the argot of the craft. He became a horny- 
handed workman. It was his lot to go into the hills 
around Nazareth, to hew down the mighty trees, cut 
them into beams, and haul or drag them back to the 
shop. He made the rude furniture, the plows, the 
yokes, the coffins, the cradles, the cabinets, the boxes 
and the stools used in that day. He used the ax, the 
mallet, the chisel, the adz, and the plane. There was a 
mother dependent upon him and hungry brothers and 
sisters to be fed. To these years antedating his min- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 41 

istry the Gospel writers pay little or no heed. But 
the language of his active career reveals his occupa- 
tion and rural environment. We find such expressions 
as, "Take my yoke upon you" (Matt. 11 : 29, 30) ; "No 
man, having put his hand to the plough" (Luke 9 : 62) ; 
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy- 
laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28); "The 
labourer is worthy of his hire" (Luke 10:7); "The 
harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few" (Matt. 
9:37; Luke 10:2); "Went out early in morning to 
hire labourers" (Matt. 20: 1); "The burden and heat 
of the day" (Matt. 20: 12); "Built his house upon a 
rock" (Matt. 7:24); "Which of you intending to 
build" (Luke 14:28); "This man began to build, and 
was not able to finish" (Luke 14:30); "I will pull 
down my barns and build greater" (Luke 12:18). 
References to green wood and to dry (Luke 23:31), 
hewing down trees for firewood (Matt. 7:19; Luke 
3:9; John 15:6), to mending old garments (Matt. 9: 
16), and to moth and rust (Matt. 6: 20) are significant 
of these years. They are the words of a strong man, 
whom a violent storm could not awaken as he lay 
asleep in an open boat (Mark 4:38). Best of all are 
those magnificent words which are a challenge to every 
idler and parasite in the world: "My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work ... I must work the works of 
him that sent me while it is day, for the night cometh 
when no man can work" (John 5 : 17 and 9 : 4). 

4. The Ministry of John the Baptizer. — John the 
Baptizer was a first cousin of Jesus, and was born six 
months before the latter, probably in Juttah, "a city 
in the hill-country of Judea," in southernmost Pales- 



42 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

tine, near Hebron (Luke i : 39, 57). As he grew to 
manhood, John left the home of his father, Zacharias, 
and dwelt a solitary hermit in the wilderness of Judea 
along the northern edge of the Dead Sea (Luke 1 : 80). 
In his dress this rugged, sun-bronzed recluse imitated 
Elijah (II Kings 1 : 8), and for food ate locusts and 
wild honey, a primitive diet similar to that still in- 
dulged in by some Asiatic peoples. Here in the soli- 
tary wilderness, under a sky copper-colored by day- 
time with the air full of a quivering, invisible tropic 
flame, and by night companioned by the desert stars 
which globed themselves one by one in the heavens 
like great balls of fire suspended in a purple vault, 
John lived in solemn communion with nature and the 
God of nature. About him were great ledges of 
scarred rock upon which the viper's brood nestled ; 
the deep ravine of the Jordan extended to the north ; 
and at his feet lay the leaden, bitter-alkali waters of 
the Dead Sea, the lowest spot in the world. It is vir- 
tually impossible to explain the revelation of God to 
John without coming to believe that it was made in 
part through the medium of nature. The very frag- 
ments of sermons of his which are preserved to us 
reflect the landscape of the wilderness in which he 
lived and moved and had his being : the viper's brood 
fleeing before the fires which at times consumed the 
vegetation (Luke 3:7); the precipitous gashes in the 
rocks, the pathless ways neither straight nor smooth 
under foot (Luke 3:5); the blasted tree (Luke 3:9); 
the rocks over which he had trod these many years 
(Luke 3:8). John the Baptizer was a child of na- 
ture; he was. not a product of the educational and ec- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 43 

clesiastical influences of his time; he was in every re- 
spect a "free lance." Doubtless the parents of John 
had often talked to him in childhood and youth of the 
angelic visitation which was the prologue to his birth, 
and of the mission which had been mapped out for him 
when he lay in the cradle. Naturally, when the voice 
of the strange, fiery, impetuous preacher, with his wild, 
hermit-like appearance, his bronzed, weather-beaten 
countenance and unshorn hair, began to echo back and 
forth from the scarred cliffs, flinty boulders, and frown- 
ing ledges of the Jordan canyon, Palestine was elec- 
trified from center to circumference. As Lange has 
said : "He was like a burning torch, and his public 
life was like an earthquake." Great crowds thronged 
from all parts of Palestine to see and hear the wonder- 
ful preacher, who like General William Booth, "lashed 
with burning words the enemies of God." According 
to the Fourth Gospel, a deputation of Pharisees was 
sent from the authorities in Jerusalem in view of 
John's tremendous popularity, to require him to es- 
tablish his identity as a prophet. To these he gave 
contemptuous attention, and their ultimate report 
seems to have been : "He hath a devil !" (Matt. 11 : 18). 
John's great message was also electrical : the long 
looked for kingdom of God promised in the Old Testa- 
ment scriptures was about to appear; the vicegerent 
of God who was to usher it in was about to appear; 
the preparation to enter the kingdom must include 
repentance for past sins to be evidenced by a symbolic 
application of water or washing in the River Jordan, 
the outward sign of an inward cleansing, known as 
"baptism." Because of this brand new symbol which 



44 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

he had introduced, John was known as the "Baptizer" 
or "Baptist." 

5. The Temptation of Jesus: A Modern Conception 
of the Devil. 



When the news of John his cousin's preaching 
reached up into Nazareth of Galilee, Jesus the car- 
penter recognized the signal, and knew that his hour 
had struck. Laying aside his leathern apron and his 
rule, the adz and the plane, he left the home in which 
he had spent the thirty years of his life (Luke 3: 23), 
and joined the vast throngs which gathered near the 
Dead Sea basin. In the course of time he submitted 
himself to John as a candidate for baptism. His cou- 
sin was thunderstruck at the request. "You are the 
one of whom I have been told all my life," said he, 
in effect ; "if that is true, it would be better for you to 
baptize me, than the reverse." Jesus insisted upon 
undergoing the rite, in this manner setting a laudable 
example to his future followers, and, should he be 
accepted by his people, to acknowledge thus publicly 
the genuineness of John's mission as a prophet. From 
his baptism, in which he was publicly proclaimed by 
John as the Messiah who was to usher in the kingdom 
long expected, Jesus retired into the wilderness to 
ponder his future public course of action, much as 
Paul retired into Arabia after his conversion to plan 
his program of action (Gal. 1 : 17) before attempting 
it. The temptation of Jesus is still naively interpre- 
ted by our traditionalist commentators, because the 
equally naive Gospel writers give it in dialogical form, 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 43 

— a drama spoken by two human actors in actual phys- 
ical speech. Mark only gives one verse to the temp- 
tation of Jesus, and does not state of what the temp- 
tation consisted. Matthew and Luke are more ex- 
plicit. Where did they get their apparent stenographic 
report of the conversation between Jesus and the 
"devil"? Obviously, it is Q material, and if authentic, 
Jesus himself must have told it later to his friends 
and followers. What were the temptations? They 
were auto-suggestions that he introduce himself to the 
public in harmony with the prevailing and popular con- 
ceptions of what the Jewish people expected the Mes- 
siah to be. They expected a military Messiah, a knight 
clad in glittering armor on a prancing warhorse, to 
come, to raise an army to follow his standard, to over- 
throw the despotism of the Roman empire, and to 
make Jerusalem the capital of the world. The three 
temptations given in Matthew's order were respec- 
tively: (a) a selfish Messiahship; (b) a spectacular 
Messiahship ; and (c) a secular, or non-religious, or 
military, or despotic, Messiahship. Should he cast 
himself from a pinnacle of the temple and seek to awe 
the people by this startling feat? Should he enter 
Jerusalem with red fire, a brass band, a flying squad- 
ron, an imposing equipage of followers, a flag-bedecked 
retinue, and all the other accessories of political tri- 
umph? Should he seek to conquer the world at the 
point of the sword, as Mohammed later strove to do, 
and having conquered, convert? The third temptation 
as given by Matthew finds a precise counterpart in the 
effort of the last Kaiser of Germany to vanquish all 
the nations of the earth first, and impose kultur upon 



46 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

them as a condition of peace. That Jesus pushed aside 
all these suggestions proves his sanity, poise, and 
common sense, — that he was a man for the ages. Not 
by revolution but by evolution, not by social and po- 
litical upheaval, but by silent transformation, was the 
method ultimately decided upon by Jesus. That there 
was a physical devil present is purely a primitive be- 
lief, and is preposterous from the modern point of view. 
That Jesus was tempted similarly many times after- 
ward is evident by comparing Matt. 4 : 10 with Matt. 
16:23, and from passages like Matt. 16:1-5; 26:68; 
and 27 : 40-43. 

6. The Kingdom of God. — It will be observed that 
this general division of the study of the New Testa- 
ment may be called problems of the life of Jesus. At 
this point in our discussion, if we are following pre- 
eminently a scientific method, we may as well frankly 
admit that further progress is impossible in a truly 
accurate biography of Jesus. The facts of his life are 
professedly fragmentary, occasional, and not in chron- 
ological order in the Synoptics, and it is folly to en- 
deavor to rearrange them in a manner which purports 
to be historically final and unimpeachable. The fate 
of the life of Jesus was transference of the facts of his 
career by a generation or two of oral tradition from 
ear to ear, mouth to mouth, and life to life, until the 
accretions were permanently recorded as "facts." His 
brief span of life and the slender means at his disposal 
to accomplish his purposes, naturally cause problems 
to arise in his life and to remain. We have no phono- 
graphic or motion picture records of his life ; and it is 
grotesque to withhold from a study of the historic 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 47 

phenomena of the New Testament our learning, sci- 
ence, and art, as has long been done. What did Jesus 
set about to accomplish in his brief span of life? What 
central idea occupied his mind? Does a reading of 
the Synoptics reveal the latter? If so, will not a scien- 
tific approach to the New Testament documents neces- 
sarily concern itself, not with a futile endeavor to re- 
arrange the chronological details of the life of Jesus, 
but with what that life in its recorded fragments sought 
to achieve? With such a program, the biographical 
details become secondary as they should be ; for it will 
be recalled that the four Gospels are primarily the 
precepts of Jesus with only incidental reference to the 
historical circumstances under which they were ut- 
tered. A reversal of the process leads to hopeless con- 
fusion, or has to date, and to endless academic dis- 
sension and historical speculation. 

The phrases "The kingdom of God" or "of heaven" 
are expressions which occur in one form or the other 
122 times in the four Gospels. Of these, 55 are found 
in Matthew, 19 in Mark, 44 in Luke, and 4 in the 
Fourth Gospel. Usually these expressions fall from 
the lips of Jesus. This idea was not invented by the 
religious genius of Jesus, but was inherited by him 
from the history and prophecy of his race. It was a 
hope born of the centuries of Israel's wanderings and 
sufferings as a nation : to Isaiah and Jeremiah the 
Kingdom hope was spiritual; to the New Testament 
age it was materialistic, military, and worldly, and 
hardly to be ushered in by a humble carpenter from 
the backwoods district of Galilee, — a man not bred in 
the priestly circles of the nation. The kingdom of 



48 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

God as promulgated by Jesus and promised by him 
and John the Baptizer is not clearly denned anywhere 
in the New Testament. Jesus nowhere describes the 
kingdom of God, mainly because it was a national 
hope, not in any respect new, and because his hearers 
understood what he meant by the expression. The 
kingdom of God was to be a Golden Age for the Jewish 
nation, but beyond that opinions differed as to what 
would characterize it. To some it meant universal 
worship of God on earth, and in the Lord's Prayer, 
Jesus advances this conception of it. To others it 
meant a reign of justice, with every man under his 
own vine and fig-tree in peace, prosperity, and con- 
tentment. Some considered Satan as reigning on 
earth, and God's promised reign not yet precisely and 
exclusively operative, and therefore to them it meant 
the kingship of God on earth as in heaven. Some 
thought that God would herald his coming on earth 
to reign over or among men by a prophet of the type 
of Elijah. The transcendent God, remote and pure, it 
was believed would need an agent, a proxy, a vice- 
gerent, a delegate, a Messiah, to destroy the old world 
order; hence "Messiah" became inevitably associated 
with a military significance in the popular mind. The 
military Messiah coming in shining armor as represen- 
tative of the Most High God would do away com- 
pletely with poverty, sickness, sin, and Roman des- 
potism. Now the fact is that Jesus constantly said, 
"The kingdom of God is at hand," and in his failure 
(as he determined resolutely not to do in his personal 
struggles with temptation) to bring it to pass visibly 
and materially before the eyes of his fellow-country- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 49 

men, he was a bitter, and to many a blasphemous, dis- 
appointment. He had presumed to be the Messiah ; 
but he had failed to upset the old order of things as 
far as could be seen. Does this help us to understand 
the bitterness behind the cry, "Crucify him"? More- 
over, Jesus teaches the kingdom as a future state, to 
come within the lifetime of that same generation 
(Mark 13:30), and often speaks of "receiving it" or 
"entering into it," as does nearly all the New Testa- 
ment. But one cannot give any calculating or pre- 
monitory signs of its coming as he can predict the 
coming of a storm by the clouds and lightning (Luke 
17: 20-24) ; and it will be bad news for some, for some 
will always be on the wrong side of the door (Matt. 
25 : 10). In his delineation of the establishment of the 
kingdom of God on earth, Jesus used invariably one 
constant figure of speech to characterize its relation- 
ships, — that of the human family. His favorite anal- 
ogy was the Household of God. God is a Father ; men 
are his children ; therefore, men are all brothers and 
should conduct themselves as such; and God loves 
and forgives his children as a kind earthly father 
would do (Luke 15:11-32) if man will reciprocate 
this affection and obey Him. The human family was 
the nearest comparison, or metaphor, that Jesus could 
conceive, to make plain to his fellow-countrymen the 
coming divine order on earth which it had become his 
task to reveal. 

7. The Constitution of the Kingdom of God (Mat- 
thew 5, 6, 7: The Sermon on the Mount). — Probably 
early in his ministry Jesus promulgated the Great 
Manifesto of the New Freedom, the Sermon on the 



50 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Mount. This may or may not have been uttered in its 
totality in a single address. Matthew tends to ar- 
range his Q materials topically rather than chrono- 
logically (e. g., he groups the parables by the lakeside, 
Matt. 13, in a single unit of material), which must 
leave forever uncertain their time order and relation- 
ships. Luke's version of the Sermon (Luke 6:20 on) 
contains only thirty verses as over against the one 
hundred seven of Matthew, and introduces nothing 
new save the "four woes" (Luke 6:24-26). The Ser- 
mon on the Mount should be studied clause by clause 
as the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. It is a 
sort of spiritual autobiography of Jesus, and reveals 
a religious genius of such high order as the world has 
never seen before or since. The preamble of this con- 
stitution is comprised of eight so-called beatitudes, 
the first of which being the one from which the seven 
following evolve. The second, fourth, and sixth beati- 
tudes deal with man's inner life toward God, while 
the third, fifth, seventh, and eighth deal with man's 
life as it should be manifested in its outward relation- 
ships toward one's fellow-man. Matthew 5 : 13-20 are 
critical and diplomatic assertions. Jesus makes it 
plain that he believes that the Jews are indeed the 
salt which is to preserve the world from spiritual de- 
cay, and the light which is to shine in the world-wide 
darkness of heathenism, provided they do not lose 
sight of their high religious mission. Moreover, he 
explicitly declares that he has not come to destroy the 
law or the prophets of the Old Testament, but to give 
them their true spiritual fulfilment. Jewish Chris- 
tians, in fact, are to observe the inner meaning of those 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 51 

teachings even more scrupulously than the scribes and 
Pharisees (Matt. 5:20). Jesus then proceeds to state 
what he considers the inner reality of certain typical 
commandments handed down by Moses. The Law of 
Murder is revised to extend to the feelings which in- 
spire murder, as well as to the committing of the deed ; 
the Law of Adultery to thoughts of evil ; the Law of 
Oaths to every kind of foolish and needless oath. The 
Law of Retaliation, having been a relic of a more 
primitive and barbarous day, is now unnecessary to 
preserve the safety of the community, and is abolished : 
and there is suggested in its stead a law of self-re- 
straint and self-discipline to the furthest endurable 
limit. In fact, perfection itself should be the goal of 
the spiritual life (Matt. 5:48). All Christian acts, — 
prayer, fasting, alms, the exercise of talents (Matt. 7 : 
6), seeking higher and nobler ideas (7'-7), the choice 
of teachers (7:15), and all forms of active service 
(7:21), — must be done solely with reference to the 
love of God, and not for personal publicity. The man 
or woman who takes heed of these lessons has built 
his life upon a solid foundation, which the winds and 
storms of adversity can never shake (7 : 24, 25). 

8. The Lord's Prayer: A Modern Conception of 
Prayer. — In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught 
his disciples a model prayer. It was short and to the 
point, involving a few big principles of prayer as he 
conceived them. When praying, we should recognize 
God ("Our Father") first of all, for, as the author of 
the Letter to the Hebrews remarks, "For he that 
cometh to God must believe that God exists" (Heb. 
11:6). Secondly, a spirit of reverence is essential in 



52 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

prayer ("Hallowed be thy name"). Thirdly, we are 
to pray for the kingdom of God to come on earth, — 
to pray for our community, state, and nation, — before 
praying for ourselves ("Thy kingdom come"). Fourth- 
ly, personal needs are secondary to the broader needs 
of the world and humanity at large ("Give us this 
day," etc.). Last of all, we should pray to acquire 
strength actively to resist all temptation, but once 
being in, to be delivered from the same ("And forgive 
us our shortcomings, as we also forgive those who 
have failed in their duty toward us"). In modern 
times, is prayer becoming a lost art? If fewer people 
pray today than formerly, why should it be so ? Jesus 
believed in the efficacy of prayer. What is prayer? 
Is it long-distance communication with God? Emer- 
son defines prayer as looking at the facts of life from 
the highest point of view. What value has prayer in 
modern life? These are perplexing questions to many 
of the younger generation. If prayer is unpopular, 
wherein does the difficulty lie? We believe it to be 
due to misconceptions or to outworn conceptions of 
the true nature and function of prayer in the lives of 
men. If we continue to look at prayer as supernatural, 
long-distance communication, we have a singularly 
unscientific and valueless conception. Emerson must 
have been right in his summary of the nature and 
function of prayer. If we eliminate the supernatural 
element in prayer, we at once find something strangely 
electric, vital, and compelling. Prayer assumes a new 
function and aspect. Let us consider briefly a modern 
conception of praying: 

(a) Prayer, when one stands on his feet and offers 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 53 

sincere, straightforward, impelling words of faith and 
optimism, is a heroic, and not a flabby affair. 

(b) Prayer keeps us sensitive to the higher ethical 
influences of life. 

(c) Prayer makes us constantly take measure of 
ourselves and others by our highest ideals. 

(d) Prayer thus strengthens one's forces for seem- 
ingly insurmountable tasks. 

(e) Prayer inspires the spirit of reverence for God, 
for humanity, and for the works of God : "for what is 
over us, for what is around us, and for what is under 
us." 

(f) Prayer is the greatest refining influence in life. 
It should be an expression of the genuine fibre of life, 
not artificial or assumed, not inflated or bombastic, 
not sentimental or sickly and pale. 

With these points in mind, let us consider, for prac- 
tical purposes as well as to show further the nature 
and function of true prayer in modern life, some "do's" 
and "don't's" which apply to prayer. 

I. First, let us consider prayer negatively. The 
negative treatment will serve two purposes: first, to 
show why prayer tends to become unpopular ; second, 
to show one how to avoid pitfalls in praying. 

(a) Do not pray lengthy prayers. Wordy, long 
prayers weary an audience rather than key it up. 
Remember that the Lord's Prayer is a model from the 
standpoint of brevity. A certain church has recently 
published a volume of "One-Minute Prayers." Three 
minutes is an excellent average length for a prayer. 

(b) Do not pray prayers of flattery and adulation of 
God. Do not fill a prayer with "soft soap." 



54 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

(c) Do not pray vociferously, as though God were 
deaf. Battering the throne of grace is a physical rather 
than a spiritual exercise. 

(d) Do not pray dismal prayers. Sin, sickness, 
death, and misfortune are indeed facts to be faced, but 
not unduly dwelt upon or minutely dissected under 
the circumstances of prayer. 

(e) Do not pray the sentimental, sickly humility 
type of prayer. SENTIMENTALITY IS THE 
DEADLIEST OFFENSE AGAINST PRAYER. 

(f) Do not pray for suspension of the laws of na- 
ture, or for miracles. 

(g) Do not pray retaliative prayers. "Praying at" 
one's audience is extremely unethical. 

(h) Do not pray selfish, egocentric prayers, or eth- 
nocentric prayers. 

(i) Do not imagine that posture is an essential to 
successful prayer. The Jew prayed standing up 
(Luke 18: n). 

(j ) Do not pray bombastic, inflated, egotistic pray- 
ers to demonstrate one's command of language or elo- 
cutionary ability. 

II. Second, let us consider prayer positively and 
constructively, as a vital, impelling life-force. 

(a) Pray briefly. 

(b) Pray hopeful, optimistic prayers for the most 
part. 

(c) Pray thoughtfully and reflectively, weighing one's 
words. 

(d) Pray with frankness, sincerity, and straight- 
forwardness. 

(e) Pray always earnestly. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 55 

(f) Pray aspiring, constructive prayers. 

(g) Pray to God as vital and near at hand, in the 
same room (Acts 17:27, 28). 

(h) Pray first for others, — for the needs of the com- 
munity and the world. 

(i) Pray for the multiplication of one's own en- 
ergies. 

(j) Pray to be of greater service in the world, — to 
be useful in the world, and not a parasite or a worm. 

(k) Pray more preventive and fewer curative pray- 
ers, remembering the old adage. 

(1) Use the Lord's Prayer as a model prayer, "the 
pearl of prayers," the little white paternoster, as Victor 
Hugo has termed it. 

9. The Promotion of a Spiritual Kingdom. — One of 
the first acts of Jesus as teacher was the organization 
of a select group of disciples, twelve in number, who 
with a careful intensive training from him might spread 
with a minimum of confusion and misconception, the 
doctrine of the kingdom of God. When the disciples 
finally became apostles (i. e., active workers instead 
of mere learners, Matt. 10: 1, 2), they paired off in an 
interesting manner after the ancient custom of Jewish 
rabbis, who traveled in pairs in order to discuss the 
Law with one another. The two brothers Peter and 
Andrew went together ; James and John, also brothers, 
known as Boanerges (Matt. 3:17) from the fervor 
and intensity of their dispositions ; Philip and his 
friend Bartholomew (Nathanael: John 1 : 43) ; "doubt- 
ing" Thomas and shrewd Matthew, both of a practical 
trend of mind; James and his brother Jude (Thaddeus, 
or Lebbaeus), of whom we know almost nothing; and 



56 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Simon the Zealot (or Canaanite), an anti-Roman poli- 
tician and schemer, and Judas Iscariot, treasurer of 
the apostolic group, and a still darker plotter than his 
companion. That these pupils never fully learned that 
Jesus conceived the kingdom of God to be spiritual 
instead of worldly is evident from Matthew 20 : 20-28, 
Luke 24: 21, and similar passages. That the people at 
large never conceived Jesus as a Messiah, never asso- 
ciating a humble carpenter with that exalted position, 
is evident in Matt. 16: 14, 21:11, Luke 24: 19, John 
18:33, an d Acts 2:22. 

10. Christianity as a Religion of Adventure. — Under 
no consideration did the Prophet of Nazareth ever 
assert that Christianity would ever be anything else 
than a religion of challenge and risk until the kingdom 
of God was firmly established on earth. Nothing could 
be more fatal to Christianity than to have it lose its 
spirit of pioneering and achievement. A nursing-bot- 
tle Christianity will never appeal to the spirit of youth. 
Youth cries out for adventure, and to the extent that 
this element is missing in religion, just to that extent 
will it lose its influence in young lives. Jesus never 
taught for a single minute that his religion was to be 
a tranquil, stay-at-home, "safety-first" brand. A cer- 
tain scribe once came to him, and said, "Master, I will 
follow you wheresoever you go." And Jesus replied, 
"Foxes have dens, and birds have nests, but the Son 
of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Another of 
his disciples said to him: "Sir, permit me first to go 
and bury my father." "Follow me," was the answer, 
"and leave the (spiritually) dead to bury their (physi- 
cal) dead!" (Matt. 9: 19-22). The whole of Matthew 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 57 

10 is a forecast of the baptism of blood and tears Chris- 
tianity must undergo from a misunderstanding and 
"let-well-enough-alone" world. "I am come," said 
Jesus, "not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10: 
34). "He that loves father and mother more than me 
is not worthy of me ; and he that loves son or daugh- 
ter more than me is not worthy of me. He that is un- 
willing to take up his cross and follow me is not worthy 
of me. He that saves his life shall lose it; and he 
that loses his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 
10:37-39). There is nothing namby-pamby about a 
religion of grim possibilities like this. While teaching 
his message publicly on a certain occasion, his mother 
and brothers stood at the edge of the crowd, desiring 
to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother 
and your brothers stand without, and desire to speak 
to you." "Who is my mother," asked Jesus of his 
informant, "and who are my brothers?" and pointing to 
his disciples he added, "Behold here my mother and 
my brothers ; for whosoever shall do the will of God, 
that is my brother, my sister, and my mother !" (Matt. 
12:46-50). Something of his sternness of doctrine is 
indicated also by Matt. 15: 14 and 26. In Matthew 16 
are repeated some of the admonitions of Chapter 10: 
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself 
and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever 
shall save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall 
lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what shall 
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul?" (Matt. 16: 24-26). To the mother 
of James and John he asked : "Are your sons able to 



58 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

drink of the cup (of martyrdom) that I shall drink of, 
and be baptized with the baptism (of blood) that I am 
baptized with?" (Matt. 20:23). Upon their affirma- 
tion that they were able, he responded : "The greatest 
person of all is he who serves his fellow-men the most." 
The rich young ruler wanted to do some one heroic 
thing by which he could win eternal life, and Jesus 
gave it to him, — of selling his possessions, taking up 
his cross, denying himself, and becoming an active pro- 
moter of the kingdom like the rest of the disciples. 
The offer was refused, because the risk seemed too 
great to the mind of one nurtured in luxury. The 
flaming denunciation of the Pharisees in Matthew 23 
gives evidence of great virility and courage on the 
part of Jesus. It would be well for the New Testa- 
ment reader to read the Synoptics to notice the calls 
to service, self-denial, and spiritual warfare and its 
incident physical anguish and hardships ; and the caus- 
tic comments of Jesus upon the faithlessness, perver- 
sity, blindness, and self-sufficiency of his own genera- 
tion. Jesus had no use for hypocrisy, sham, and a 
religion of externals and make-believe. He had no 
patience with the ridiculous Blue Law Sabbath which 
prohibited a man from very sensibly rescuing live 
stock from unfortunate accidents (Matt. 12: 11), from 
preparing food for one's self and friends if hungry 
(12:3, 4), and from relieving physical distress (Matt. 
12: 10-13), on the Sabbath Day. The doctrine of un- 
washed hands meant nothing to him (15:2-9); clean 
and unclean foods had no spiritual significance what- 
ever (15: 11); the practice of fasting was not incum- 
bent upon his disciples (9: 14, 15) ; to him the condition 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 59 

of the heart was everything, and these externalities 
nothing except as aids to that condition, to be dis- 
pensed with easily were that state of heart once at- 
tained. There is nothing in the religion of Jesus, 
barring possibly his purely prescientific concepts, such 
as angelology and demonology, that conflicts with 
sanity and common sense. Religion to Jesus meant 
aspiration and attainment through self-sacrifice and 
suffering; the Cross looms up forever as the emblem 
of personal sacrifice to the last degree, — the laying 
down of one's life for an ideal. This was the ideal of 
the Pilgrim Fathers who settled America in 1620. Of 
them F. G. Peabody has well said : "Not to play safe, 
but to face risks for a great cause; not to save life in 
England, but to lose it in the wilderness ; not to cling 
passively to the Cross of Christ, but to take up their 
own cross and carry it, — such were the marks of the 
Pilgrim character. . . . Religion to them had its own 
limitations of form and doctrine, but it was funda- 
mentally chivalric, venturesome, courageous ; not the 
religion of the stay-at-home, but the religion of the 
adventurer." x Such, indeed, was the spirit of the 
founders of Christianity. 2 

11. The Miracles of Jesus: A Modern Conception 
of Miracles. — The ancient world at the time the New 
Testament was written had not evolved the modern 
scientific concept of nature as a causal nexus (chain) 
of interrelated laws, governed by the relationship of 
cause and effect. Modern science teaches that for 

1 New York "Times," October 17, 1920. 

2 Bunyan's conception of the Christian life in "Pilgrim's 
Progress" as a series of struggles is quite in harmony with that 
of Jesus. 



60 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

every phenomenon or "effect" in nature there must 
have been a cause, however obscure and puzzling the 
latter may seem to us. We no longer look at big phe- 
nomena as "supernatural" in origin, but somewhere 
as the effects of certain definite, scientific causes. For 
instance, it was formerly believed that the thunderclap 
and stroke of lightning were the anger of God or of a 
god, but modern physics teaches that these phenomena 
are the effects caused by the collision of two masses 
of vapor, one charged with positive, the other with 
negative, electricity ; and that in any case the collision 
is purely accidental. Therefore, if any "miracle" can 
be explained from natural causes, it at once ceases to 
be a "miracle," and is deprived of any supernatural 
significance. Most people today do not belieye in 
miracles in general, but in THE miracles, a traditional 
list of which happened within a limited time and within 
a limited locality. If miracles are met with outside 
of the Bible, as for instance in the Apocrypha or Lives 
of the Saints, they are not believed by modern minds 
even on their own merits. Moreover, in any case, 
Biblical or otherwise, we are confronted not by mira- 
cles themselves, but by miracle-narratives. The Ger- 
man writer Lessing once said, "Accounts of miracles 
are not miracles." The problem of miracle-analysis 
is as much ancient, and therefore prescientific, mira- 
cle-report, as it is miracle event. Miracles are common 
in all ancient writings, and are not peculiar to the 
Bible. We can readily believe the miracles of the 
New Testament, however, if we are willing to apply 
to them modern scientific tests. It must always be 
borne in mind that they are recorded by writers in a 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 61 

prescientific age, and that, as Bowen remarks, "There 
was no electric light in Peter's cabin in Galilee." 

In speaking of the miracles peculiar to the New 
Testament, it is well to bear in mind the following 
facts : 

(i) The word "miracle" nowhere occurs in the 
Greek of the New Testament, nor does the word 
"supernatural" or its equivalents or cognates. The 
three Greek words unfortunately uniformly translated 
"miracle" are: (a) "teras," meaning "prodigy" or 
"wonder"; (b) "semeion," meaning "sign" or "signifi- 
cant event," as the "sign of the prophet Jonah"; and 
(c) "dunamis," meaning "power," or a one-man ability, 
as in healing-power. 

(2) The miracles, if they were supernatural events, 
are insufficient to keep Judas from betrayal, Peter from 
denial, or the Jews from plotting against the life of 
Jesus. 

(3) Miracles are never used as evidence in behalf 
of the claims of Jesus, who himself refused to work 
signs and wonders (Matt. 16:1), or to come down 
from the cross. They are homiletic, not evidential; 
they are used to teach lessons of faith ; they are "acted 
parables" in many instances, — as for instance in the 
cases of the gratitude of the Samaritan leper, the still- 
ing of the tempest, and cursing of the fig-tree, etc. 

(4) The disciples of Jesus are given power to per- 
form miracles the same as Jesus (Matt. 10: 1-8; Mark 
6: 13; Acts 5: 15, 16), and Jesus said, "Greater works 
than these shall ye do" (John 14: 12). 

(5) Many miracles are recorded in the New Testa- 
ment other than those of Jesus. For instance, Paul 



62 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

(Acts 14:3, 8-10; 19: 11, 12; 20: 12), and Peter (Acts 
3; 9:40, 41). The New Testament makes no distinc- 
tion between the miracles of Jesus and those of his 
disciples. 

(6) The miracles of Jesus are NEVER alluded to by- 
Paul, who strains the Old Testament scriptures to 
prove Jesus the Messiah, but who never calls in the 
miracles of Jesus as evidence of the fact. The miracles 
of Jesus had a negligible influence apparently on the 
succeeding generation. 

There are forty-one miracles in the Four Gospels, 
with fifteen supplemental miracles wrought ON Jesus. 
Another scholar lists thirty-six. The so-called "mirac- 
ulous draught of fishes" is probably not a miracle, for 
travelers tell us that the density of shoals of fishes at 
times cannot be conceived, covering often an acre on 
the surface of the Lake of Galilee. A famous traveler, 
Captain Wilson, says one shot from his revolver killed 
three. Bowen estimates the actual number of miracles 
at twenty-three, not admitting the "signs" of the 
Fourth Gospel, which is not considered an historical 
presentation of the life of Jesus. These twenty-three 
may be grouped conveniently into four divisions : 

I. Demonology (5). 
II. Healing the sick (12). 

III. Restoring the dead (2). 

IV. Nature-miracles (4). 
I. Demonology "miracles." 

These twenty-three Synoptic "miracles" (although 
the New Testament does not refer to them as such or 
as supernatural in any manner), we shall now discuss 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 63 

in some detail, following Mark's original, primitive, 
unvarnished account wherever possible as the basis 
of our discussions. 

1. The demoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum: 

Mark 1 : 23-28 ; Luke 4 : 33-37. 

2. The Gadarene and the swine: Mark 5:1-20; 

Matt. 8; Luke 8. 

3. The Canaanite woman's daughter: Mark 7; 

Matt. 15. 

4. The epileptic boy: Mark 9; Matt. 17; Luke 9. 

5. The dumb demoniac: Luke 11; Matt. 9 and 12. 
These five problems can all be discussed under one 

head because of their similarity. All persons in New 
Testament times having some obscure mental or nerv- 
ous disorder without an accompanying organic defect, 
uniformly had their cases crudely diagnosed as "de- 
mon-possession." Jesus believed in demon-possession 
(Mark 9:28-29 and Matt.: 7-22); so did his disciples; 
so did the authors of the New Testament documents ; 
so did people universally. The demons, or devils, were 
supposed to be hiding among the rocks and tombs, 
and in out of the way places, ever on the lookout to 
enter the human body. They obstructed sight, hear- 
ing, speech, thoughts, and actions ; they inhibited bod- 
ily functions ; they rendered their victims ceremonially 
unclean. In China vestiges of this belief still persist; 
tonsilitis is alleged to come from devil-inhabited ton- 
sils, and the tonsils are seared with a red-hot iron 
when swollen and diseased to drive out the devils. A 
curious fact in Mark 5 is the fact that the victim 
dwelling among the tombs believed that he had a le- 
gion of devils in him, which means 6,000 or up, on the 



64 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

basis of the Latin military unit. Moreover, the actions 
of this victim were such as to strike panic into a 
nearby herd of swine, who fled precipitately down the 
hillside into the lake and were drowned. The gospel 
writers, writing from the naive standpoint of first 
century (not twentieth century) men, and firmly be- 
lieving in demonology, attributed the destruction of 
the swine to Jesus directly, who, of course, was in- 
directly responsible. Although professional exorcists 
sprang up in multitudes to cure these unfortunate af- 
flicted ones by means of charms, spells, herbs, incan- 
tations, etc. (see Tobit 6:16), it is noteworthy and 
admirable that the Carpenter of Nazareth used noth- 
ing but his personal authority and marvelous influ- 
ence to restore his patients. That vital, dominant, 
authoritative personality with the healing faculty per- 
vading it to an extraordinary degree was irresistible 
in its magnetism. Many obsessions yet today can be 
scared away by a decisive personality. Such cures 
go on today in the clinics of modern psychotherapeutic 
hospitals. Whether the cures of Jesus were perma- 
nent or not, however, the New Testament does not 
state. 

II. Healing the Sick. — Of these twelve miracles 
(i) and (2) are two cases peculiar to Mark alone (7: 
31-37 and 8:22-26), and may be designated as "saliva 
miracles." It was anciently believed that the saliva 
of a holy or a fasting man had highly curative prop- 
erties. The two miracles here mentioned are wrought 
by the application of saliva. Matthew and Luke use 
every other healing story of Mark ; hence it is entirely 
possible that these two miracles are later interpola- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 65 

tions, and are not authentic gospel narratives. If 
they are, it is demonstrated that Jesus shared the be- 
lief of his time and country with regard to the healing 
properties of saliva. 

(3) and (4) contain two miracles given alone by the 
Gospel of Luke (13: 11-17 and 14: 1-6). In the first 
instance, that of the woman bowed with infirmity, two 
things are to be noted : first, verse 14, which contains 
total absence of surprise or wonder at the miracle; 
and second, that the emphasis by the gospel writer is 
placed almost exclusively on Sabbath violation. In the 
second, the same things are to be noted except that 
the ailment is stated to be dropsy. The healings here 
are of distorted conditions of the body rather than of 
fevers or organic lesions. It has been repeatedly 
proved in the modern world that the former type of 
ailment often yields readily to suggestion and to con- 
fidence in the physician by whom one is treated. Medi- 
cal literature is full of the most extraordinary cases 
of psychic healing. But the point stressed by Luke 
in each case is the violation of the Sabbath, not the 
physical relief of the patient; nor is any amazement 
manifested by the witnesses of the healing. In Luke 
17: 11-19, the point of the story of the relief of the ten 
lepers is the gratitude of the Samaritan leper, not the 
fact that he was healed. Where were the other nine 
lepers, who were Jews? The moral pointed is similar 
to that of the Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10). 

(5) and (6) deal with the healing of the centurion's 
servant (Matt. 8:5-3 an d Luke 7:1-10). This is a 
gospel point for the Gentiles wrought "in absentia." 
The fact that the miracle was accomplished at a dis- 



66 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

tance, and by absent treatment, are not the primary- 
factors here. The astonishing faith of the father, with 
the family probably sympathetically co-operating, in- 
cluding the sufferer himself, wrought the cure, accord- 
ing to Jesus. Luke 7 : 9 states that Jesus admitted his 
own countrymen and nationality had exhibited to date 
no such marvelous faith in his ability as a healer. 

The remaining six of the twelve healings of the sick 
are found in all three Synoptics. 

(7) concerns the healing of Peter's mother-in-law 
(Mark 1:29-31; Matt. 8; Luke 4). The use of the 
Greek present participle in Mark 1 : 30, translated more 
accurately "feverish," indicates in itself that the af- 
fliction was not a malignant or bacterial fever. The 
healing is an instance of simple invigoration. 

(8) is the famous story of the withered hand (Mark 
3: 1-6; Matt. 12; Luke 6). Here once again the point 
of the miracle is the gospel one of alleged Sabbath 
desecration, and not the healing process itself. The 
man's hand apparently was knotted, twisted, or 
dwarfed by loss of nervous control and will-power, an 
impediment which Jesus authoritatively breaks down 
by the sharp command, "Stretch out your hand !" 
(Mark 3:5). Everyone knew what to expect — what 
was coming — including the sufferer, for it is led up 
to by a preliminary discussion concerning the observ- 
ance of the Sabbath. 

(9) deals with the woman with the issue of blood 
(Mark 5:25-34; Matt. 9; Luke 8). Nowhere in the 
New Testament is clearer light shed on the miracle 
problem than precisely here. Jesus knew nothing 
about it until it was all over, and the whole healing 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 67 

process is the direct result of the patient's supreme 
conviction that she can be healed. 

(10) deals with the picturesque episode of the para- 
lytic man lowered through the roof (Mark 2:1-12; 
Matt. 8; Luke 5). Here again our Greek lexicon 
comes to our aid. The Greek "paralyticos" means 
oftener simply "lamed" or "enfeebled" than it does the 
more radical "paralyzed" or "palsied." This man's 
ailment was an inability to use his limbs, and such 
cases are astonishingly amenable to suggestion. The 
shrines of St. Anne de Beaupre, Our Lady of Lourdes, 
Trier, and Our Lady of Consolation are witnesses of 
numerous cures of invalids who came in wheel-chairs 
and on crutches, to go away leaving such impedimenta 
behind. People who come long distances, at enormous 
sacrifices, and with faith and conviction, are particu- 
larly liable to cure. Often strengthened faith and nerv- 
ous control was all that was necessary for relief. In- 
stances are known to medical science in which para- 
lytics who had been bed-ridden for years and their 
condition given up as hopeless, have risen from their 
couches of affliction when the house caught fire, and 
have run precipitately out of doors. 

(11) concerns leprosy (Mark 1 : 40-45 ; Matt. 8; Luke 
5). Leprosy is understood to mean in modern times 
a malignant destruction of the human tissues baffling 
all medical power, and placing the victim almost be- 
yond hope of physical salvation, in the terrible state 
that Coleridge has poetically designated "life-in-death 
that thicks man's blood with cold." BUT BIBLE 
LEPROSY IS NOT THE MODERN MALADY. It 
covers a wide variety of contagious and defiling skin 



68 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

affections. Often it was cured by the passing of time, 
so that strict regulation became necessary on the part 
of the high priest or local priest, who rigidly examined 
the cured one. What else could Jesus mean by com- 
manding that the leper go show himself to the priest 
(Mark 1:44; Luke 17:14, etc.)? Apparently Bible 
leprosy was entirely curable, and after the leper had 
been quarantined or segregated a sufficient length of 
time to become again ceremonially clean, he was read- 
mitted to social relationships. The trouble again has 
been in our too literal rendering of the word "lepra," 
which means "scaliness," from "lep," a scale. This 
word is used in the Bible to apply to leather articles, 
garments, and the plastering of houses (Leviticus 13 
and 14). Many of these lepers came to Jesus for ex- 
amination as to their ceremonial cleanliness. The road 
to Jerusalem was often a long one, and the practice 
sprang up of the patient showing his condition to the 
local rabbi. Jesus, being an unrecognized, unauthor- 
ized rabbi by the authorities, always commanded them 
to go to the priest. In the Greek of Mark 1 : 41, the 
expression is literally, "Jesus, snorting at him," with 
vexation because he had been appealed to as the local 
authority, rather than the more dignified "moved with 
compassion" of the King James translators. 

(12) and the last typical healing miracle is that of 
blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52; Matt. 20:29-34; 
Luke 18:35-43). Matthew makes it "two blind men," 
just as he doubles the number of animals on which" 
Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The word "blind" covers 
a multitude of eye-disorders. Nervous, inorganic 
blindness yields often to medical treatment and to 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 69 

suggestion. Enthusiasm, excitement, shock, combined 
with faith, will work wonders for the patient who 
considers his condition hopeless, especially'if it be at 
basis hysterical. As far as we know, the few instances 
of the blind receiving their sight again is the type of 
blindness here mentioned. There can be no question 
of Jesus' healing power in the absence of effective 
materia medica; faith healing, focussed especially in 
great religious personalities, constituted about the 
sole method of true healing in antiquity. 

III. Restoring the Dead — This kind of miracle, the 
most marvelous of all in the New Testament to the 
traditionalists, is the very type of which there are 
more instances of Jesus' disciples having performed it 
than of himself (e. g. Tabitha by Peter: Acts 9:40; 
Eutychus by Paul: Acts 20:9-12; see also Matt. 
10:8). 

1. The Raising of Jairus' Daughter (Mark 5:22- 
43; Matt. 9: 18-26; Luke 8:40-56). This touching in- 
cident should be read carefully in the order of scrip- 
ture references above given. If this is done, one can 
observe the tradition grow from Mark to Matthew to 
Luke, the last basing their accounts on Mark's, of 
course. Mark says specifically (5:23) "at the point 
of death" in the original account of this miracle as he 
had heard it from the lips of Peter, who was present 
and witnessed the whole affair (5 : 37), and who above 
all others ought to know the exact circumstances. 
Mark furthermore records that Jesus himself remarked : 
"The girl is not dead, but asleep" (5:39). Mark is 
very careful to say that those who heard the words of 
Jesus laughed scornfully at the theory of coma or un- 



70 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

consciousness. The people thought she was dead. The 
attending neighbors never thought for a second of 
revising their original judgment. They were con- 
vinced in their own minds that she was dead and had 
been raised again. Matthew and Luke record the 
tradition in its final form; but the modern thinker 
must believe Mark, who writes accurate, almost first- 
hand information regarding the transaction. It is en- 
tirely probable that the girl was restored from a state 
of coma by the Great Physician. Paul raising Euty- 
chus is almost an exact parallel. The people all said, 
"Eutychus is dead" (Acts 20:9-12), but Paul revised 
their judgment. Revival from death, premature burial, 
and similar phenomena abound in literature, ancient 
and modern. Edgar Allan Poe was notoriously fond 
of this sort of pabulum. One of the victims of the 
Lusitania disaster of May, 191 5, was revived from ap- 
parent "death." For several days her body lay in the 
Queenstown morgue. She had been pronounced dead. 
But she gradually became conscious, though totally 
unable to move a muscle. When the doctors made 
their final trip of inspection among the bodies before 
burial, this woman, who is still living, managed to 
flutter an eyelid. She was removed at once to a hos- 
pital and gradually restored to life and consciousness. 
2. The Widow's Son of Nain: (Luke 7:11-17). 
This miracle is recorded by Luke alone, and is not, 
therefore, a part of the usual trustworthy tradition 
handed down by Peter. In this hot climate burial was 
speedily accomplished (John 11 : 39). In this instance 
the widow's son, the question again naturally arises: 
did the ancients discriminate between actual death and 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 71 

apparent death? When is the psychic element com- 
pletely severed from the physical? The ancients cus- 
tomarily said "revival from death"; moderns say, "not 
dead in the first place, if restored." In I Kings 17: 
17-23, Elijah restored a widow's son. Luke 7: 16, re- 
ferring to Jesus as "a great Prophet" in this connec- 
tion shows that this incident paralleled almost exactly 
in the minds of the alleged witnesses Elijah's feat. 
II Kings 4:32-36 records the fact that near the same 
spot where Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain, 
Elisha also raised from death the son of the Shunamite 
widow. It is plainly apparent that a parallelizing 
tendency is at work here, and all the more from the 
fact that Luke places this miracle in an obscure, un- 
connected part of his account. Luke further admits 
(4: 25-27) that the Messiah of the Jews, when he was 
come, was to act similar to Elijah and Elisha. It 
must be further remembered that Luke, though the 
only evangelist to tell of this miracle, was not a resi- 
dent of Palestine. 

IV. Nature Miracles. — The four so-called nature 
miracles are stilling the tempest, walking on the water, 
feeding the multitudes, and cursing the fig-tree. 

(1) Stilling the Tempest (Mark 4:36-41; Matt. 8: 
23-27; Luke 8:22-25). In this miracle-account it will 
be noted that the emphasis is not put on the fact that 
the waves were suddenly flattened and certain meteor- 
ological phenomena dispelled, but upon faith. The 
men who were with Jesus were experienced fishermen 
who had lived all their lives by and on the Sea of 
Galilee, and to assume that they were overwhelmed 
with terror is absurd. But their fear doubtless is some- 



72 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

what accentuated to bring out the gospel lesson that 
faith dispels and casts out fear. There is no doubt 
that this incident occurred. The Sea of Galilee is 
down in a bowl surrounded by high cliffs. Farrar 
records that the heated air suddenly sweeping down 
into this cool bowl often produces violent hurricanes 
which will last but a few minutes, vanishing as quickly 
as they come. It would be entirely probable that by 
the time Jesus, who was sound asleep, awakened, the 
storm would have exhausted its force. Again it is 
possible that a parallelizing tendency is at work here 
again through the influence of the Old Testament 
upon the New. When the Messiah came as vicegerent 
of God on earth, it had been foretold that he should 
be able to exercise control over wind and wave (Psalms 
77:16-19 and 107:23-30, the latter of which closely 
parallels Mark 4 : 34-41 ; II Kings 6:5-7; Isaiah 43 : 2 ; 
Nahum 1 : 4, etc.). 

(2) Walking on the Water (Mark 6: 48-51; Matt. 
14:22-33) is based on the same principle observed 
in the Old Testament references given in the last 
sentence preceding. When the Messiah came, he was 
to have dominion over the waters. This miracle creeps 
into the New Testament under the parallelizing influ- 
ence of the Old Testament. Once again, the point is 
not the assertion that the physical body of Jesus sud- 
denly lost its specific gravity and natural gross den- 
sity, but that faith overcomes all obstacles. 

(3) Feeding the Multitudes (Mark 6:31-44; Matt. 
14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; repeated with slight varia- 
tion in Mark 8 and Matthew 15). These very similar 
incidents, usually considered as miracles, are given in 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 73 

their true light in John 6 : 28-58 as symbols of the 
Eucharist. There were gathered up twelve baskets 
of fragments, — one for each apostle. There were five 
loaves and two fishes, or a total of seven units, — seven 
being a significant religious number to the Jews. Who 
counted the multitudes? Would they go out into the 
wilderness without food? These questions naturally 
occur to the analyst of this miracle story. John 6 : 30 
and 49-51 observe a close parallel in the Old Testament 
account of the children of Israel being fed Manna in 
the wilderness. II Kings 5 : 42-44 tells of Elisha feed- 
ing a multitude over the protest of the servitor that 
the quantity of food was too small. Psalm 107 : 4-9 
parallels the New Testament idea very strikingly, as 
does Micah 7: 14 and 15. Here again we have very 
beautiful incidents told by the New Testament writers 
but slightly developed by the influence of the Old 
Testament upon the New. 

(4) Cursing the Fig-Tree (Mark 11:12-24 and 20- 
26; Matt. 21:18-22; Luke 13:6-9 and 20-26). The 
student should first read the accounts of Mark and 
Matthew, and then that of Luke. It will be found 
that Luke gives as a parable what Mark and Matthew 
give as a fact. The fig-tree in every case represents 
Jewish national life, and is intended to fulfil the pro- 
phecy of John the Baptizer (Luke 3:9). This inci- 
dent is a parable spoken as Jesus sees a dying fig-tree 
which suddenly occurs to him as a symbol of the 
religious life of his people, who were meant to be the 
"salt of the earth." 

In concluding our consideration of the miracles of 
Jesus, the incident of the Coin in the Fish's Mouth 



74 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

(Matt. 17:24-27) must be noted as a reported saying 
of his, but not given by the original account of Mark. 
The coin is twice the amount of the tax, and the story 
ends without saying whether it is ever done or not. 
The point is that Jesus conformed in paying taxes as 
well as in baptism, and so ought his followers to ob- 
serve the civil law wherever they may live. 

The miracles of the Fourth Gospel are not treated 
here, because, as Professor Bacon remarks, "The seven 
progressive 'signs' that he (John) narrates, culminat- 
ing in the raising of Lazarus, are avowedly (20:31) 
illustrative selections from a multitude of current mir- 
acle tales," and are not given for their historical value, 
since not handed down in except possibly one or two 
cases to Mark as part of the Petrine tradition, but for 
their theological value. In other words, we repeat 
that the Fourth Gospel makes no pretense of being an 
historical account in itself of the life of Jesus. Mir- 
acles are not purely a Biblical phenomenon, nor pecu- 
liar to Jesus. They neither add nor take away any- 
thing to or from our estimate of him when we sum 
up his permanent effect upon human history. 

12. The Parables of Jesus. — As the ministry of 
Jesus progressed, it became increasingly apparent that 
his advocacy of a progressive, reformed Judaism was^ 
evoking bitter hostility and hatred on the part of the 
conservative ecclesiastical circle at Jerusalem, who 
controlled the national church of the Jews. There is 
a sharp break discernible in the teaching method of 
Jesus in Matthew 12 and 13, which proves him a 
master psychologist. Observing that a too plain, out- 
spoken message would bring such violent opposition 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 75 

to his work as to make it impossible for him to con- 
tinue, he turned from a direct to an indirect method 
of attack. Matthew 13 gives a series of parables (Q 
material topically arranged) showing a new method of 
approach which should partially veil the plainness of 
the conclusions inevitable from his argument. These 
parables are masterpieces of the story-teller's art. 
Luke's Perean Section contain the most famous : Laz- 
arus and Dives, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samari- 
tan, etc. Following are the parables of Jesus, alpha- 
betically arranged and briefly interpreted, by which 
he avoided a premature break with the Jewish gov- 
ernment until such time as he chose to fling defiance 
into their teeth (the Triumphal Entry episode) : 

THE PARABLES ENUMERATED 

(1) Fig-Tree: (Luke 13:6-9). The heart of this 
parable seems to be in verse 7. The "three years" 
refer to the three years of Jesus' ministry, which were 
barren insofar as Jewish national acceptance of him 
was concerned ; the "certain man" is God ; the "dresser 
of the vineyard" is Jesus, who intercede? for its pres- 
ervation from destruction yet another year. 

(2) Friend at Midnight: (Luke 11:5-9). B y this" 
parable Jesus teaches that prayer, to be thoroughly 
effective, must be persevering. 

(3) Good Samaritan: (Luke 10:30-37). This par- 
able was given in answer to the question, "Who is my 
neighbor?" (10: 29). Jesus shows His breadth of view 
by making a hated Samaritan a better neighbor than 
a Jewish priest or priest's apprentice. A true neigh- 



76 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

bor is one who extends the helping hand in another's 
hour of deep distress, and the personal devotion is 
even more important than had it been done through' 
the impersonal agency of institutional or organized 
charity. The victim of the parable needed personal 
friendship and sympathy even more than he needed ma- 
terial assistance. 

(4) Great Supper: (Luke 14:16-24). This parable 
may refer to the call of the Gentiles as stewards of 
Christianity, after the Jews had rejected that privi- 
lege. Again, it may mean that, between the two hu- 
man extremes of those who are completely wrapped 
up in worldly affairs, and the beggar, the poor la- 
borer, the publican, and the outcast, the latter have 
ultimately the spiritual advantage, of entrance into 
the kingdom of God. See Matthew 21 : 31, 32. 

(5) Hidden Treasure: (Matt. 13:44). Entrance 
into the kingdom of heaven, when one has once dis- 
covered the way, is similar in its effect as if the person 
concerned were materially poor and had suddenly dis- 
covered a secret of improving his financial condition. 
The parable thus exemplifies the joy of one who leaves 
all to follow Christ, once he understands the signifi- 
cance of his act and its rewards. 

(6) House Built on the Sand: (Matt. 7 : 24-27 ; Luke 
6:47-49). The person who conducts his life on Chris- 
tian principles as enunciated in the Sermon on the 
Mount has built his life and character upon a founda- 
tion of rock, so that when the rains and winds of 
adversity, sorrow, and misfortune beat against it, it 
will not be seriously shaken, much less be completely 
swept away. Those* who build upon sand apparently 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 77 

are they who neglect the spiritual life, and strive to 
build their happiness upon money, pleasure, self-seek- 
ing, and material affairs, which are not permanent. 

(7) Laborers in the Vineyard: (Matt. 20:1-16). 
All who serve God will be rewarded. Often those who 
serve Him at "the eleventh hour" accomplish actually 
more than those who, of less ability, have served Him 
constantly. The laborers under the hire of God will 
be rewarded according to their opportunity and en- 
lightenment, and not according to proportionate length' 
of service. The recently converted heathen who serves' 
God will be rewarded just as much as the aged civilized 
Christian who also has served him a lifetime, but with 
the added advantage of enlightenment from childhood 
in a Bible land. In other words, eternal life is a gift 
of God, and not something which is earned. 

(8) Lazarus and the Rich Man: (Luke 16:19-31). 
This, like other parables, is capable of more than one 
application to life. Obviously, it is aimed at wealth 
that is indifferent to human need, and not at wealth it- 
self. It shows that "God is no respecter of persons" 
(Acts 10:34); that the judgment of the next World 
is often the reverse of the judgment of this ; and that 
externals count nothing against the condition of the 
heart. It gives, metaphorically, an interesting glimpse 
of eternity as anciently conceived. Apparently the 
future life is to be one of conscious remembrance of 
the deeds committed in this (Luke 16:25); there is a 
state of retribution and penalty of sin (16:23); a re- 
versal of rewards and advantages in the case of the 
hard-hearted rich (16:25); and it illustrates the an- 
guish of the lost (16:24). 



78 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

(9) Leaven: (Matt. 13:33). The parable of the 
mustard-seed is primarily the parable of external, visi- 
ble growth of the kingdom; the parable of the leaven 
is the parable of chemical diffusion, as yeast diffuses 
through dough. Christianity is a leaven which dif- 
fuses silently through and improves every field of 
human activity: education, art, literature, journalism, 
music, interpretation of law, the promotion of science 
through benevolent foundations and broad tolerance, 
and in our day, particularly, it is going to be enforced 
in international relationships. 

(10) Lost Piece of Money: (Luke 15:8, 9). This 
parable is admirably interpreted by Jesus himself in 
verse 10. It is an incentive to Christian workers to 
go out and redeem the lost, from the street-corners, 
the saloons, the pool-rooms, and the dens of idleness 
and vice. 

(11) Lost Sheep: (Matt. 18:12-13; Luke 15:4-7). 
This parable is also called "the Ninety and the Nine" 
(Luke 15:4). The interpretation is the same as in 
the case of the lost piece of money. Both illustrate 
that all human souls are equally important as far as 
their salvation and value are concerned. 

(12) Marriage of the King's Son : (Matt. 22: 1-10). 
This parable emphatically illustrates the rejection of 
Jesus by the Jews and the call of the Gentiles to carry 
the banner of Christianity. The King is God; His 
Son is Jesus Christ; the servants are Christian disci- 
ples; the invited guests are the Jews; the burning of 
the city (v. 7) foretells the destruction of Jerusalem; 
and those gathered from the highways are heathen 
Gentiles, good and bad. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 79 

(13) Mustard-Seed: (Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 5:31, 
32; Luke 13: 18, 19). The kingdom of God had a 
tiny beginning in numbers and influence, — one man 
and twelve disciples, — but has grown so gigantic as 
to include today one-third of the human race, and that 
third controls mainly the affairs of the rest of the 
world. The mustard-plant is still growing, and the 
words of Jesus are still to be realized by missionary 
effort. Sometimes this parable is applied to the indi- 
vidual whose faith at first is small and timorous, but 
growth in the Christian life makes him strong and of 
great religious influence. 

(14) Net Cast into the Sea : (Matt. 13: 47-49). This 
parable Jesus explains himself (verses 49, 50), and 
refers to the sifting out process also described in par- 
ables (19) and (28), which see. 

(15) Pearl of Great Price: (Matt. 13: 45, 46). This 
parable is practically the same in meaning as (5) pre- 
ceding. It illustrates the desirability of membership 
in the kingdom of heaven, and the reward of one who 
leaves all to follow Christ. 

(16) Pharisee and Publican: (Luke 18:9-14). By 
this parable Jesus exemplified that humility is the 
standard by which God judges personal religion, and 
not external service or mere lip-loyalty. Verse 12 
refers to Monday and Thursday, the two fast-days of 
the week scrupulously observed by every strict 
Pharisee. 

(17) Prodigal Son: (Luke'15: 11-32). It is essen- 
tial to know that the word "prodigal" means "extrav- 
agant" or "spendthrift," and not "wandering." The 
word is popularly. thus misunderstood, unless the two 



80 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

usually go together when applied to modern cases. By 
this parable Jesus overturned the ancient Jewish con- 
ception of God as purely a God of wrath and revenge 
(Exodus 20:5), substituting the conception that God 
is like a kind, generous, whole-hearted father, gracious 
and forgiving to his erring children if they will but 
repent (verse 18) and return to him. "The elder son" 
of the parable (verse 25), objecting to "the lavish cele- 
bration of the sinner's return, is assured that all God 
has belongs to him, although no demonstration was 
ever made for him (v. 31); and he typifies those who 
live all their lives under the approval of God. The 
latter import of this parable is similar to that of (9) 
and (10), preceding. 

(18) Rich Fool: (Luke 12: 16-20). Here is a par- 
able of warning similar to that of Lazarus and the 
Rich Man (8). We have control of our lives only to 
very limited extent, and we build our life's foundation 
upon sand when we trust in riches, pleasure, and the 
things of this world alone, to the exclusion of the re- 
ligious sentiment (See Matt. 6:33). Dante has 
pointed out in the "Inferno" that the seventh of the 
seven deadly sins is so deadly that he hesitates to 
call it by name, but we ultimately discover that it is 
selfishness. 

(19) Seed Growing Secretly : (Mark 4: 26-29). The 
growth of the kingdom of God is secret and invisible, 
like the seed of grain which grows while its owner 
and observers sleep, and ripens into harvest without 
anyone being able to explain the how or why, and is 
equally as astonishing. 

(20) Sheep and the Goats: (Matt. 25: 31-46). The 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 81 

final test of admission into the kingdom of God is how- 
one has ordered his life in relation to lives less fortu- 
nate than his. Individual ministration to human needs 
while in this life is the final standard of the Great 
Judge. It is simply a question of selfishness versus 
service and charity. The most startling feature about 
this parable is that many of the "sheep" were actually 
goats, and were perfectly unaware of the fact (verses 

44,45). 

(21) Sower and the Seed: (Matt. 13:3-23; Mark 
4:3-20; Luke 8:5-15). This parable was taken from 
scenes of life with which the audience of Jesus was 
quite familiar. There are four kinds of soil: (a) the 
wayside, where the fowls came, (b) stony, shallow 
soil, (c) soil not cultivated, and infested with thorns, 
(d) good, prepared soil; and these represent four kinds 
of people who receive the "seed" of the gospel: (a) 
those who do not understand or appreciate the aim of 
the gospel-message, and evil soon blots out their ac- 
tivity in its behalf (these presumably are people who 
stay away from the church); (b) those who eagerly 
and even joyfully are converted, but realizing that the 
Christian life is a struggle, soon flag and quit (these 
are emotional people converted in great revivals who 
were excited only temporarily) ; (c) those who accept 
the message at its face value, but continue their busi- 
ness-cares evenings, holidays, and Sundays, until they 
become ciphers in the spread of the gospel; and (d) 
the active, worth-while Christian, who promotes the 
gospel. 

(22) Talents: (Matt. 25 : 14-29). The gold talent 
(a weight of metal used as a money-unit) of the He- 



82 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

brews was worth about $32,000, and the silver talent, 
$2,000. It is interesting to know that Jesus gave us 
the meaning of "special aptitude" for the word "tal- 
ent" from this parable. This is a parable of the rela- 
tion of faith to work. Those who have the advantages 
of the gospel should make the most of them, and not 
rest idly content in selfish possession. The Great 
Judge at the last day will not tolerate such slothful- 
ness (v. 26), any more than a captain of industry 
would tolerate it from one of his subordinates or agents 
whom he had entrusted with a considerable amount of 
money, and who had failed to use it profitably. Note 
that no more is expected from anyone out of propor- 
tion to his ability in either case (v. 15). 

(23) Ten Pounds: (Luke 19: 12-27). A "pound" is 
British money-unit worth approximately five dollars. 
This parable has the same application as the preced- 
ing (22), and is, in fact, only a varied version of it. 
But Luke's version, uttered in the house of Zaccheus, 
seems more specific ; the nobleman typifies Jesus ; his 
departure, the departure of Jesus from this world ; his 
return, the second coming of Christ; his rewards, the 
principle upon which Christ will reward His faithful 
as against His faithless servants at the Last Judg- 
ment. Note verse 11 particularly in interpreting this 
parable. 

(24) Two Debtors: (Luke 7: 40-43). This parable, 
uttered in reproof of Simon the Pharisee, showed the 
Pharisee that the measure of love received in life is 
proportioned by the amount of charity displayed for 
the shortcomings of others. The sinful woman had 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 83 

more to repent for than did Simon by his inhospitality ; 
therefore, her heart was greater than his. 

(25) Two Sons: (Matt. 21:28-31). The first son, 
who at first refused to work for his father, but after- 
ward repented and went, typifies the sinners who re- 
pented and are now working for the cause of right- 
eousness; the second son, who glibly promised to 
work, but did not, typifies the Pharisees to whom this 
parable is addressed, who are not performing the wilf 
of God (see also Matt. 23: 15). 

(26) Unjust Judge: (Luke 18: 1-8). This has iden- 
tically the same application as (2), preceding, as is 
evident from Luke 18: 1. 

(27) Unjust Steward: (Luke 16:1-13). "Unjust" 
here, as elsewhere, frequently in the Bible means "dis- 
honest." Jesus wants us to imitate, not the steward's 
dishonesty, but his prudence and cleverness in making 
himself a friend to his master's debtors who helped 
him out of his difficulty. The disciples of Christ, if 
they use their message to aid and comfort others in a 
practical way, are not likely to be left in want when 
misfortune overtakes them. This is a parable of con- 
trast, like the parables of the Friend at Midnight (2), 
and the Unjust Judge (24) ; that is, there is no ap- 
proval of the conduct of the self-interested ones, but 
the lesson is emphasized by the fact that the people 
involved were not of a high standard of decorum or 
honesty. 

(28) Unmerciful Servant: (Matt. 18:23-35). One 
of the cardinal points of Christian doctrine as set forth' 
by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere 



84 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

is mercifulness (Matt. 5:7; 6:12). God will not be 
merciful to the unmerciful (Matt. 18:35). 

(29) Wheat and the Tares: (Matt. 13:24-42). 
Jesus explains this parable so convincingly and sim- 
ply that no analytical version could improve upon it 
(Matt. 13:36-42). 

(30) Wicked Husbandmen: (Matt. 21 : 33-41 ; Mark 
12: 1-9; Luke 20: 9-16). This parable again illustrates 
the Jewish rejection of their Messiah, and His accept- 
ance by the Gentiles. The vineyard is the kingdom 
of Israel; the householder, God; the husbandmen, the 
Jews ; the servants sent as messengers are the prophets 
slain of old; the Son, Jesus Christ (verse 37), whom 
they also slew by crucifixion ; the destruction of the 
vineyard is the destruction of the Jewish nation in 70 
A. D. ; and the "other husbandmen" are the Greeks, 
Romans, and other Gentiles, who were to perpetuate 
Christianity. 

(31) Wise and Foolish Virgins: (Matt. 25:1-13). 
Those who prepare to become members of the king- 
dom of heaven at the last minute, but who really knew 
better in the first place, will be shut out. The par- 
able teaches the suddenness of Christ's coming, and 
"preparedness." When the kingdom of God shall 
come, there will always be some on the wrong side 
of the door. 

13. Peter's Confession (Mark 8:27-31; Matt. 16: 
13-20). Just as every Shakespearean play has a cli- 
max in the third act, so the grand climax of the 
ministry of Jesus probably came in its third year. 
Now that his disciples had observed his work and 
absorbed his conception of the New, Universal, Re- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 85 

formed Judaism, Jesus put to them the final question 
which was carefully designed to search their hearts, 
to test their faith, and to disclose to him some of the 
deepest impressions of their extended association with 
him. From this interesting dialogue it is very vividly 
apparent that the Carpenter of Nazareth had not im- 
pressed his fellow-countrymen that he was the ex- 
pected Messiah. In fact, the truth is that Jesus only 
considered himself the Messiah-Elect, and that he 
should not be the Messiah-in-Fact until after he had 
suffered his ignominious death on the cross. Else why 
did he charge his disciples not to repeat the substance 
of Peter's Confession, and why did he immediately 
thereafter begin to explain the nature and purpose of 
his death and resurrection? David was anointed to 
be King of Israel as a child, but served as a shepherd 
many years in the interim. Paul regards the Messianic 
career of Jesus as beginning after the death of Jesus, 
and very seldom refers to the earthly career of Jesus, 
and never uses miracle-story to prove the Messiahship 
of Jesus. Up to Peter's Confession, the people appar- 
ently had no idea of Jesus as Messiah; and modern 
Judaism, using such scholarly spokesmen as Stephen 
S. Wise and C. G. Montefiore, stoutly defends this 
conclusion. In fact, the probability is that when 
Christianity divests itself of supernaturalism, and mod- 
ern Judaism of much of its historical paraphernalia, 
that the two religions will find much common ground 
on which they can agree, for socially and spiritually 
the two are virtually identical. Verse 19 of Matthew 
16 delegates to Peter the power to bind and loosen 
Christians to Christian covenants and contracts, par- 



86 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ticularly in a spiritual sense, and therefore to him the 
founding of the Christian organization (see Acts 2: 
38-41); and it was he who converted the first Gentile 
(Acts 10). 

14. The Transfiguration. — The Transfiguration of 
Jesus is regarded by Bowen and by many German 
scholars as one of the post-Resurrection appearances 
of Jesus to his disciples. 1 Wellhausen, Holtzmann, 
Kohler, and Bacon support this view. Bacon describes 
the Transfiguration as "a halting attempt to embody 
Pauline doctrine in Petrine story." 2 If these views 
are legitimate, as Bowen suggests, "the Transfigura- 
tion of Jesus upon the mountain is, in its origin, the 
appearing of the risen and glorified Jesus to Peter." 
It is noticeable, as Goodspeed suggests, that the two 
who appear with Jesus in this scene are Moses and 
Elijah, the spiritual leaders of Israel, and not David 
and Solomon, the military and regal leaders of Israel. 
Alford remarks that the Law and the Prophets here 
consigned into the hands of Jesus their delegated and 
expiring power, — that the Old Dispensation had passed 
away, and the New had come into definite authority. 
The documentary and textual problem of this incident 
must remain open, however : is it a pre- or post-Resur- 
rection appearance of Jesus, with Moses and Elijah, 
to his disciples? 

15. The Triumphal Entry: (Mark 11:1-11; Matt. 
19:29-44; John 12: 12-19). — The black thunder-clouds 
of official opposition to the doctrine and ministry of 

1 See C. R. Bowen : "The Resurrection in the New Testa- 
ment" (Crown Theolog. Lib., G. P. Putnam's, 1911), pp. 419-423. 

2 B. W. Bacon: "The Making of The New Testament" (Home 
Univ. Lib., Henry Holt & Co., 1912), p. 230. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 87 

Jesus had been gathering ominously on the horizon 
for some time, and now threatened at any moment to 
engulf him. Fifteen separate conflicts between Jesus 
and the Pharisees are recorded in Mark, and all of 
them deal with purity and sincerity in religion as over 
against formalism, ceremonialism, and ecclesiasticism. 
The arguments of Jesus as to what constituted the 
substance of real religion, and his criticisms of Phari- 
saic morality, are in reality what precipitated his death. 
After Peter's Confession Jesus devoted his time main- 
ly to private instructions to his disciples to strengthen 
their faith for the coming ordeal of his ignoble and 
tragic removal from their midst, and reduced his pub- 
lic ministry to a minimum. He succeeded completely, 
although he could not forestall the temporary panic 
which assailed them at the crucifixion. Every inch a 
man, and at no time a shirker or slacker, the rugged 
young carpenter now "set his face steadfastly to go 
to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). Like Martin Luther's 
famous visit to the Diet of Worms, Jesus, a loyal and 
devout Jew to the last, attended his last Passover, 
and deliberately "put his head in the lion's mouth." 
The Triumphal Entry is one of the most dramatic 
episodes in the whole life of Jesus, being exceeded only 
by the more sensational manner of his trial and exe- 
cution. He received an ovation all along the route. 
He came, not on a prancing war-horse, but on the 
donkey, the emblem of peace and royalty (I Kings 1 : 
32-34; II Samuel 13 : 29). He made this sharp distinc- 
tion, though yielding temporarily to the popular 
clamor. It is notable that the Palms figure only in 
the Fourth Gospel account; Mark's account of the 



88 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

incident is not Messianic but prophetic; Matthew 
makes it Messianic in the shout of the populace, but 
when they explain it they say, "He is a prophet" ; and 
Luke echoes his own Infancy Narrative, "Hail to the 
King. Peace and glory and honor in the highest!" 
The political demonstration accorded Jesus by the 
throngs who lined the roads was distinctly rural and 
provincial; in it the proud inhabitants of Jerusalem 
took no part, for "the Pharisees said among them- 
selves: 'Behold, the world is gone after him!' " (John 
12:19) — a tribute to the effectiveness of the demon- 
stration. Jesus doubtless chose this method, which 
he had expressly forbidden himself during his Temp- 
tation in the Wilderness, to fling his defiance into the 
faces of the authorities at Jerusalem in a manner which 
would stamp itself indelibly in the history of the na- 
tion. Then he topped it off with the bitter, scathing, 
flaming denunciations recorded in Matthew 23, beside 
which the lacerating satire of Swift sinks into ghostly 
paleness. This last sermon precipitated the death of 
Jesus within less than twenty-four hours, the Phari- 
sees using as a tool the avaricious, but poor, ignorant, 
and unsophisticated Judas Iscariot, whom they very 
obviously defrauded in the small amount he received, 
and whose name has ever since been a hissing and a 
byword, synonymous with detestable treachery. 

16. The Last Supper. — This beautiful incident 
should be treated reverently as well as critically, for 
on it has been based one of the sacraments of the 
Christian church universal. The events leading up to 
this event of Thursday evening are too well known to 
need elaboration. A controversy has raged over the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 89 

question of whether the Last Supper was Jesus' cele- 
bration of the Passover. All evidence militates against 
this view. The Jewish day began at sunset; supper 
was the first meal of the day. Mark 14: 12-16, which 
seems to contradict the rest of that chapter, is regarded 
by many scholars as an interpolation, and not authen- 
tic. Mark 14: 17, 18 may mean that the Last Supper 
was not the Passover celebration originally prepared 
for. Jesus was buried in a hasty fashion by Joseph of 
Arimathea, who felt duty-bound to prepare himself 
undefiled by contact with a corpse, for the Passover. 
Therefore, it was too early for Jesus to celebrate the 
feast. Or did he feel that it had come to be a super- 
fluity in Jewish religious life? In any event none of 
the Passover ritual was here gone through with; 
there was no Paschal Lamb, no bitter herbs, no un- 
leavened bread, and no fourfold drinking of wine. If 
the Passover Lamb had lain before them, Jesus would 
hardly have used the bread or cracker, to symbolize 
his death. It apparently was a farewell meal to his 
beloved associates who henceforth would see him no 
more in the flesh. As he broke the bread for the meal 
it suddenly flashed over his mind that here was a 
homely symbol of his wrecked life, now falling into 
fragments; the wine poured out suggested vividly to 
his imagination the shedding of blood. These were 
merely the simple acts of the supper-table, and con- 
tained nothing particularly theological or didactic. 
The sacramental idea was "in the air" in ancient and 
mediaeval times, and inevitably these became church 
sacraments. For centuries Christians called it simply 
the Breaking of the Bread and The Cup. In Gethse- 



90 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

mane Jesus again used the cup of wine idea as a sym- 
bol of his martyrdom, as he had done in Matt. 20. 
These were parables of his death. Jesus knew that 
if he were put to death that it must occur before the 
Passover; he knew that the Jews could not execute 
him, but only the Romans, and hence, his manner of 
death could be easily foreseen ; he seems to have sus- 
pected that Judas had betrayed the Messianic Secret 
to the Jewish reactionaries, which he had been charged 
not to do (Mat. 16:20); and that the storm must 
break within twenty-four hours, which it did. In 
Gethsemane the disciples obviously did not realize 
the nearness of his death, for they went to sleep. The 
last words that Jesus directed to his disciples were 
focussed on the impulsive and changeable apostle to 
whom he had given the keys of heaven, and who de- 
nied him three times : "Simon, Simon, Satan has de- 
sired to possess you that he may sift you as wheat is 
sifted ; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail 
not, and when at last you have come back to your true 
self, you must strengthen your brethren" (Luke 22: 
31, 32). In Gethesemane Jesus was seized by a band 
of men sent out from the officials of the Sanhedrin, or 
Jewish supreme court. His sudden imprisonment 
threw his disciples into complete panic, who deserted 
him and fled in terror to hide themselves from a like 
fate. That the majority of them fled into Galilee is 
indicated from Mark 16:7 and John 21. 

17. The Two-fold Trial and Death of Jesus.— (a) 
The trial of Jesus was of a two-fold nature: first, the 
ecclesiastical, or church trial, and second, the trial 
before the civil authorities. It was the policy of Rome 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 91 

at this time to extend to her subject provinces as much 
local self-government as the temper of the people per- 
mitted, with especial tolerance on matters of religion. 
All religious offenses were by law answerable to the 
Jewish Sanhedrin, but if a prisoner were found worthy 
of death, the trial must be repeated before the Roman 
civil authority, usually at Caesarea on the Mediter- 
ranean, but in Jerusalem should the Roman prosecutor 
happen to be present. The Jewish sentence must be 
sustained by him, and only upon his express approval 
could it be carried into execution. The two phases 
of this remarkable trial follow: 

I. The Ecclesiastical (Church) Trial: 
1. Before Annas (John 18:13): Just why Jesus 
should first be conducted before Annas is not plain, 
and it may have been an infringement of the pris- 
oner's rights. Annas was an old man of about seventy 
years of age, who lived in one of the official palaces 
connected with the administration of the temple. He 
was ex-high priest, and father-in-law of the present 
high priest, Caiaphas. Probably he was the actual, if 
not the nominal, controlling religious influence in 
Jerusalem, the leader of the old reactionary gang. 
Annas sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas (John 18:24). 

2. Before Caiaphas and an Informal Gathering of 
the Sanhedrin. — A disciple had followed Jesus into the 
palace of Caiaphas (John 18: 15), and seems to have 
been respected there (V. 15). He caused Peter to be 
admitted (18:16), who, however, stood without the 
door of the trial-room, warming himself over a charcoal 
fire (18: 16). Here, in accordance with the prediction 
of Jesus (John 13:38), he denied to the maid who 



92 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

kept the door that he had ever heard or known of 
Jesus before, repeating his denial to another inquisi- 
tive servant later (John 18:25-27). Then, it is re- 
corded, when Jesus turned and looked at him (Luke 
22:61), he recalled that prediction, and went out and 
wept bitterly. It was about two or three o'clock in 
the morning when Jesus was brought before the high 
priest. The Sanhedrin could not legally conduct court 
until sunrise, but they now hurried on the trial, re- 
serving the precaution to approve it technically after 
sunrise, which only took a few minutes' formality. 
Caiaphas strove, under pressure, to get Jesus to make 
some incriminating, haphazard testimony against him- 
self, but the prisoner, with his ever-admirable self- 
possession, calmly remarked that his words and deeds 
had always been open to public inspection (John 18: 
19-21), and that he had nothing to conceal. Upon 
this reply, one of the officers present struck him a blow 
(John 18:22), showing how much justice and con- 
sideration might be expected throughout the whole 
proceedings. Then Caiaphas asked him if he were 
the Son of God (Mark 14:61). Jesus replied in the 
affirmative (V. 62). The high priest rent his gar- 
ments as a token of horror at such blasphemy, and the 
Sanhedrin by a hasty vote condemned him to death. 
Then followed an orgy of shameless abuse and bru- 
tality, an explosion of long-restrained Pharisaic hatred 
and fanaticism. Among other things, they blindfolded 
him, and in ridicule of his claims as a prophet, asked 
him to identify the various ones who struck him 
(Mark 15:64). 
(b) The Trial of Jesus Before the Roman Authori- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 93 

ties. — Leaving Jesus still bound, the chief priests, eld- 
ers, scribes, and Sanhedrin, after another conference, 
delivered him to the civil authorities in order to try 
him again as required by the Roman code, and to get 
the death sentence upheld and executed. This must 
have been between six and eight A. M., and here fol- 
lows the second phase of the trial : 

II. The Civil Trial : 

1. Before Pontius Pilate. — Pilate was the sixth pro- 
curator, or Roman governor, of Judea, appointed by 
Tiberius Caesar in 26 A. D. Pilate had had consider- 
able trouble with his Jewish subjects, who objected 
to his bringing the silver eagles and heathen emblems 
of his soldiery from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and for 
five days they stormed his palace at Caesarea with 
furious protests, until finally he yielded to their de- 
mands and ordered the offending decorations removed. 
This, together with his appropriating temple money 
to build an aqueduct to bring a good water-supply to 
Jerusalem from the Pools of Solomon, had caused a 
number of minor revolts, one of which is referred to 
in Luke 13 : 1-5, and had caused Pilate to regard his 
fanatical subjects with deep disgust. So unsuccessful' 
was he, that a few years later he was deposed by the 
Roman emperor, and is said to have committed sui- 
cide. Pilate went to the Judgment Hall earlier than 
usual on this Good Friday morning, when he was 
aware a great deputation was coming with a prisoner 
for trial, doubtless expecting some Passover disturb- 
ance of unusual dimensions. With characteristic 
brusqueness, Pilate opened the proceedings with, 
"What accusation bring ye against this man ?" (John 



94 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

18:29). They answered gruffly: "If he were not a 
malefactor we would not have delivered him up to 
thee" (18 : 30). But this was no charge at all, so Pilate 
ordered them to take him away and judge him accord- 
ing to their law (18: 31). Since they had already done 
this, to put a plausible face on the proceedings, they 
accused him of treason to Caesar (Luke 23:2), par- 
ticularly by declaring himself a king. Pilate then 
called Jesus aside, and asked him if he were King of 
the Jews. The former could see, as could even a blind 
man, "that for envy they had delivered him" (Matt. 
27:18). Jesus apparently had not heard the latest 
accusation, and asked Pilate if he had brought this 
charge himself, or whether the Jews had (John 18 : 34). 
The Roman governor assured Jesus that could not 
have been of his own knowledge, for he was not a 
Jew (John 18:35). Jesus then proceeded to explain 
that his kingdom was spiritual, not earthly or politi- 
cal, for if it had been the latter his servants would 
have waged a campaign of military defense (John 18: 
36). Pilate, apparently not grasping the idea of a 
spiritual kingdom, repeated his question (V. 37). 
Jesus more in detail explained that he was a king in a 
purely religious sense (18:37). Pilate, being a prac- 
tical man, impatiently dismissed these abstractions, 
and went out to the Jews again. He acquitted Jesus 
in a most emphatic and unqualified sentence: "I find 
in him no fault at all" (John 18:38). This caused a 
wild tumult of mob fury (Luke 23:5), and they ac- 
cused him of stirring up sedition all the way from 
Galilee to Judea (23 : 5). Catching the word "Galilee," 
Pilate sought a loophole for himself to be rid of an 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 95 

extremely annoying incident. If Jesus were of Gali- 
lee, he would be under the jurisdiction of Herod Anti- 
pas, also in Jerusalem at that time (Luke 23 : 6, 7). To 
Herod, therefore, Jesus was taken. 

2. Before Herod Antipas. — Herod had long been 
curious to see Jesus (Luke 23 : 8), and asked him many 
questions. But Jesus looked with disdain on the mur- 
derer of John the Baptist, this petty prince who 
through self-indulgence and cruelty had lost his last 
spark of manhood and character. Getting no reply, 
Herod contented himself with throwing over the shoul- 
ders of Jesus a "gorgeous robe" (Luke 23:11), and 
dispatching him again to the court of Pilate. 

3. The Second Trial Before Pilate. — When Jesus 
was brought back to him, Pilate earnestly sought to 
secure his release, a desire which no doubt had been 
increased by a dream of his wife (Matt. 27 : 19). Again 
he tried to acquit him (Luke 23: 13-15), and possibly 
give him a scourging as light punishment (V. 16). 
Then followed the demand that Barabbas, a notorious 
criminal, be released, according to the custom of the 
Passover, but that Jesus be crucified. This was done ; 
Jesus received the horrible scourging or flagellation ; 
he was clothed in a scarlet robe, wreathed with a crown 
of thorns, and given a reed in imitation of a sceptre ; 
and taken back to Pilate for formal sentence to be 
pronounced. Pilate, hoping that the sight of the 
weakened and blood-besmeared prisoner would cause 
them to relent, let him out before them, saying : "Be- 
hold the man !" (John 19: 5). Seeing that he was still 
bent on releasing Jesus, the Jews played their last 
card. "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's 



96 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh 
against Caesar!" they shouted. Pushed to the wall 
finally by his feeble compromises, and recalling that 
the Jews had many another complaint to file against 
him, Pilate became a traitor to those principles to which 
he had formerly with such firmness adhered. Bringing 
out a basin of water, he washed his hands of the whole 
matter, saying: "I am innocent of the blood of this 
just person: see ye to it" (Matt. 27:24). The re- 
sponse was a great uproar: "His blood be upon us, and 
on our children!" (Matt. 27:25). 

(c) The Crucifixion. — Although Pilate turned Jesus 
over to Roman soldiers, who alone could inflict the 
penalty of death under the Roman provincial laws, the 
deed was assumed freely and properly by the Jewish 
authorities. The soldiers took off the scarlet military 
cloak which had been put on him in mockery, and 
arrayed him again in his own garments (Matt. 27: 
31). He was required to carry his own cross, and 
preceded by a herald who proclaimed the crime com- 
mitted to the public, escorted by the maniple of sol- 
diers, and followed by "a great company of people" 
(Luke 23:27), the tragic procession started on the 
Via Dolorosa, or "way of grief." For thirty years a 
carpenter and apparently a man of considerable health 
and strength, as we have seen on previous occasions, 
Jesus had been exhausted by loss of sleep and rest 
since the preceding Wednesday night, by the nervous 
strain of his several examinations, and by loss of blood 
from the scourging, and sank down from the weight 
of his cross. He carried it part of the way (John 19: 
17), but in order to avoid delay, the soldiers impressed 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 97 

into service one Simon of Cyrene (possibly a colored 
man, as some have suggested, since Cyrene is in mod- 
ern Tripoli), "the father of Alexander and Rufus" 
(Mark 15 : 21), who may have been a Christian sympa- 
thizer, to carry the burden the remainder of the jour- 
ney. Many interesting legends are told of the Via 
Dolorosa, among them that of St. Veronica, who gave 
the condemned prophet a towel on which to wipe his 
face, leaving the imprint of his face upon it afterward. 
Luke alone records the sympathy expressed by the 
women for the great sufferer, who, however, thought 
not at all of himself, either now or on the cross, but 
only of their tragic future (Luke 23:27-31). The in- 
famous procession finally halted at a "place" (not a 
"hill"), called Calvary in Latin (Luke 23:33) and in 
the Hebrew "Golgotha," the place of a skull (John 
19:17). It was somewhere outside the city (John 
19: 20), and near a highway (Mark 15 : 29). The place 
of a skull may refer rather to the fact that it was the 
common place of execution rather than its being a 
skull-shaped eminence or hill. Several of the world's 
great painters have depicted Golgotha as a rocky hill, 
and Adam's skull lying at the foot of the cross, on 
which the blood of Jesus fell, thus redeeming the 
human race, and paving the way for the universal 
resurrection of the dead. Here Jesus was nailed to 
his cross, between two common thieves who were 
justly paying the penalty of their misdeeds (Luke 23: 
41). Crucifixion was the fearful method of capital 
punishment provided by the Romans and ancient bar- 
barians for misdemeanors deemed worthy of death, 
particularly for slaves and the lowest elements of so- 



98 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ciety, among the crimes punishable by it being mur- 
der, treason, piracy, and revolt. Cicero speaks of it 
with horror and detestation ; and it was officially abol- 
ished by Constantine the Great, significantly the first 
Christian emperor of Rome. It was a fierce form of 
torture, accompanied by unquenchable thirst, and fre- 
quently by gangrene, convulsions, lockjaw, paralysis 
of certain muscles, fever, and swollen blood-vessels. 
Sometimes the sufferer lectured and exhorted the 
spectators on certain social and political reforms; 
sometimes he cursed and spat at his executioners ; 
sometimes he raved and cursed in agony; and some- 
times he only moaned or kept silent. On the cross, 
Jesus was silent, except for seven brief sentences, 
spoken only for comfort and blessing. About the foot 
of the cross circulated beneath his dying eyes a sea of 
spiritual mud: dignified priests and elders taunting 
him, the Pharisees, the rulers of the people, many of 
the multitude (Luke 23:35), and even the two at his 
side. The rulers objected to the inscription on the 
cross: "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF 
THE JEWS" (John 19:19), but Pilate peremptorily 
refused to change it (John 19 : 22). We may sometimes 
wonder what pleasure the populace got from the pub- 
lic executions, yet in our own land many elderly 
people are still alive who can remember when it was 
the custom for the whole countryside to attend a 
hanging, and to take their lunches with them. We 
may wonder at the horrible nature of crucifixion itself, 
yet in the year 191 5 "Private Peat" recorded that some 
Canadian soldiers were found affixed thus to barn- 
doors with bayonets. In its details, history repeats 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 99 

itself from time to time, and there is something shock- 
ingly modern, after all, about the physical features of 
the death of Jesus Christ. The seven utterances of the 
cross are: 

(1) "FATHER, FORGIVE THEM; FOR THEY 
KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO" (Luke 23 : 34). 

(2) "VERILY I SAY UNTO THEE, TODAY 
SHALT THOU BE WITH ME IN PARADISE" 
(Luke 23: 43). 

(3) "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU 
FORSAKEN ME?" (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). 

(4) "WOMAN, BEHOLD THY SON." "BE- 
HOLD THY MOTHER" (John 19:26, 27). 

(5) "I THIRST" (John 19:28). 

(6) "FATHER, INTO THY HANDS I COM- 
MEND MY SPIRIT" (Luke 23:46). 

(7) "IT IS FINISHED" (John 19:30). 

The first was a prayer for his enemies, as he taught 
his disciples to pray in the Sermon on the Mount 
(Matt. 5 : 44) ; the second, a word of promise to the 
penitent, dying thief, celebrated in Cowper's hymn, 
who was profoundly impressed by the nobility and 
majesty of his great fellow-sufferer; the third, a repe- 
tition of the words of his great ancestor David's lonely 
agony (Psalm 22: 1); the fourth, a tender regard for 
the future happiness and welfare of his mother; the 
fifth, a natural expression of physical need, for which, 
however, he refused relief, choosing, like a man, to 
taste the bitterness of death to its last drop, even 
though the law allowed some relief (Proverbs 31:6); 
the sixth, a repetition of the faith of his ancestor 



ioo THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

David (Psalm 31:5); the seventh, a victorious shout 
of triumph over his enemies, and the optimistic sense 
of having completed, within three and one-half brief 
years, a work that would sometime control the life of 
the world. Then follows a description of natural phe- 
nomena: the noonday and afternoon darkness (Mark 
I 5 : 33)> the earthquake (Matt. 27:54), the resurrec- 
tion of the saints (Matt. 27:52, 53), and the length- 
wise tearing of the veil of the temple so that all, and 
not alone the high priest, could see into the Holy of 
Holies (Matt. 27: 51), symbolizing, as one writer tells 
us, that no longer was priestly sacrifice necessary for 
direct communion with God (Hebrews 10: 19-21). 

(d) The Burial of Jesus. — The fact that Jesus died 
with the shout of a victor Corresponds to his statement 
found in John 10: 18. But somehow in the purposes 
of God the shedding of blood is always necessary for 
the remission of sins, not only individually but nation- 
ally. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). 
Jesus died as the type to his nation of the Passover 
Lamb slain for the remission of sins, and for all who 
accepted him the Passover sacrifice was no longer 
necessary (Hebrews 10:3-14). Jesus died about three 
o'clock in the afternoon, and the Jewish Sabbath be- 
gan at sunset. The burial of Jesus, after the soldier 
had made sure of his death with a spear-thrust (John 
19:34), is beautifully recorded in John 19:38-42, by 
one who purported to be an eye-witness (19: 35). He 
who had "nowhere to lay his head" in life, in death 
was buried in another's tomb (Matt. 27:60; John 
19:41). 

18. The Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead. — In 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 101 

"The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap- 
ter 18, Gibbon says that the resurrection faith did 
more to make Christianity a propulsive force in the 
ancient Roman empire than any other one factor in 
its operation. It satisfied the human heart more than 
the breaking-down pantheistic and nature faiths of 
which the Gentile world was becoming tired, and was 
beginning to regard as futile. It is here our purpose 
to present two views of the Resurrection, the old 
traditional and a modern scientific, and to allow the 
reader to settle the question for himself. 

I. The Ancient Traditional View of the Resur- 
rection. 

This view is too familiar to need much elaboration : 
the angel or angels rolling away the stone ; the coming 
of the women and the disciples to the tomb, which 
was found empty, and the ten recorded appearances 
of the risen Jesus to believers during the forty days 
subsequent to that glorious first Easter morning : 

a. To the Women at the Tomb: Luke 24:9, 10, 12. 

A test-case of the angel. 

b. To Mary Magdalene : Mark 16:9. A test-case 

of hearing and seeing. 

c. To Peter: I Cor. 15:5. A Test-case of at least 

vision. 

d. To James: I Cor. 15:7. A test-case of at least 

vision. 

e. To Two Disciples: Luke 24: 15-35. A test-case 

of hearing, seeing, and breaking of bread. 

f. To the Ten, Thomas Absent: Luke 24:36-43. A 

test-case of hearing, touch, and of eating. 



102 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

g. To the Eleven Thomas present : John 20 : 26, 27. 
A test-case particularly of touch. 

h. To the Seven in Galilee: John 21 : 1-14. A test- 
case particularly of eating and social commu- 
nion. 

j. To the Five Hundred: I Cor. 5:6. A test-case 
of vision by a multitude of witnesses. 

k. To the Eleven on the Mount of Olives : Luke 
24 : 50. A test-case of vision and hearing. 

By test-case we mean tangible proofs offered by the 
Gospel writers from oral tradition to those in particu- 
lar who had believed on Jesus previously. Then it is 
recorded that the glorified body of Jesus finally rose 
from this earth into the heavenly realms, leaving his 
disciples behind to fulfill the mission bequeathed to 
them of propagating Christian principles among all 
the peoples of the earth. 

II. A Modern Scientific Conception of the Resur- 
rection. 

In order to understand the Resurrection story per- 
fectly, it is necessary again to recall the order in which 
the documents of the New Testament appeared his- 
torically. They are: (a) The Letters of Paul; (b) 
The Synoptic Gospels and Acts; and (c) The Fourth 
Gospel and General Epistles. Therefore, it is from 
Paul that we get our first written, earliest, most re- 
liable, and nearest in point of time to the event itself, 
Resurrection account. I Corinthians (written about 
57 A. D.) is the first document to deal at some length 
with the Resurrection (Chapter 15). It was written 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 103 

only a quarter of a century after the event itself, 
probably fifteen years before Mark wrote the Begin- 
nings of Gospel Story, forty years before Matthew 
and Luke, and half a century possibly before Acts, 
although these are but tentative estimates. It must 
have appeared at least sixty years before the Fourth 
Gospel. The reader will doubtless accept the follow- 
ing as axiomatic: that whatever Paul teaches about 
the Resurrection, we may confidently accept as having 
been the teaching of the Twelve Apostles and the 
earliest church, for Paul himself says that on this 
point he and the Apostles were one. 

If the reader will read carefully I Corinthians 15, he 
will note the phrase "according to the scriptures" in 
verses 3 and 4. Paul very boldly and without any 
historical or descriptive details proclaims the Resur- 
rection of Jesus. That Jesus died is a matter of his- 
tory; that he died for our sins is a declaration of faith 
rather than of history. That Jesus was raised from 
the dead Paul knows from the evidence of his own 
sense (V. 8) ; but that he was raised from the dead 
on the THIRD DAY he knows only "according to the 
scriptures." x Jesus foretold that he would be raised 
out from among the company of the dead on the third 
day "according to the scriptures" (Mark 8:31; 9: 
9-13 ; 9: 31 ; 10: 34, etc., basing his prophecy on Hosea 
6: 2; II Kings 20: 5, etc.). Where did the Old Testa- 
ment scriptures get their idea of "the third day"? The 
answer is, of course, that it was a primitive concep- 
tion introduced into Judaism from the Persian and 

z^^?: Bowen: "The Resurrection in the New Testament" 
(U P. Putnam's, 1911), p. 11, et seq. 



io 4 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

other religions, of the soul hovering three days over 
a dead body before taking its flight, and, more par- 
ticularly, of the resurrection of life in springtime after 
three months of winter. 

Paul bases his whole testimony of the Resurrection 
of Jesus on the subsequent "appearances" to the dis- 
ciples, and not because he has known of an empty 
grave. In none of the Letters of Paul is any mention 
made of an empty grave. In the Book of Acts no 
mention is made of the disciples preaching of an 
empty grave ; in Jerusalem they never visit the grave ; 
Paul never mentions visiting it. Moreover, bodies in 
New Testament Palestine were buried in hillsides, 
and not in the ground, so that "Come forth" (John 
11:43) is more accurate than "Arise." Jesus, like 
Lazarus, was buried in a rock hewn out in a hillside. 
Therefore, "being raised from the dead," rather than 
referring to the physical body, must surely refer to 
the soul or spiritual body. Paul, in fact, vigorously 
combats the idea then beginning to creep into the 
Corinthian church that the Resurrection has to do 
with the physical body (I Cor. 15 : 35-56). 

The Resurrection then, to be brief, as preached by 
Jesus himself, by Paul, and by the Twelve, meant that 
the soul of Jesus would not remain in the underworld 
(Sheol, or Hades : see Acts 2 : 27), but would rise from 
thence, out from among the company of departed souls, 
and escape on high into the heavenly realms." x 

It was inevitable that the tradition would crystallize 

1 The "ascension" of Jesus, therefore, would be synchronous 
with his "resurrection,'\ although one scientist has observed that 
if the physical body of Jesus ascended, it has not yet reached 
the nearest fixed star. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 105 

into being in the early church that "being raised from 
the dead" was the equivalent of the revival of a dead 
body. Was Mark then to blame for this, since he is 
the first Gospel writer, and writes of an empty tomb? 
As a matter of fact, Mark did not finish his Gospel 
after chapter 16, verse 8. In J. Paterson Smyth's ad- 
mirable little volume, "How We Got Our Bible," 1 
the author states, in a first-hand discussion of the two 
oldest New Testament manuscripts in existence, that 
in these two manuscripts (the Vatican and the Sinaitic 
Mss.) that the last twelve verses of Mark's Gospel 
are omitted. The Sinaitic manuscript is yet plain evi- 
dence, for it ends with the two Greek words "epho- 
bounto gar" ("for they were afraid," V. 8). It was 
finished by a later and unknown hand, and on the 
work of this meddler are the accounts of Matthew and 
Luke based. Why was it finished thus? Because it 
was very humiliating to give an account of the anti- 
climax of the ministry of Jesus, of his disciples being 
thrown into a terrible panic, and of their fleeing back 
to Galilee, as the Fourth Gospel account intimates all 
too plainly that they did ; and because of the tradition 
that the Resurrection had something to do with the 
physical body of Jesus, — a thing of which he never 
dreamed. Today no person imagines that his own 
body will physically be resurrected from the tomb, 
for we have the burial formula : "Earth to earth, ashes 
to ashes, and dust to dust." 

Bodies of crucified criminals were ordinarily left 
hanging on their crosses to be destroyed by the winds, 
rains, heat, birds, and beasts. Josephus says that in 

1 James Pott & Co., N. Y., 1915, pp. 16 and 20. 



io6 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the time of Jesus thousands upon thousands of crimi- 
nals were crucified annually. Jesus had no reason to 
expect burial ; and that his body was buried was due 
really to two haphazard, fortunate circumstances: 
the pity of Joseph of Arimathea, and the admiration 
of Pilate for the man of Nazareth. Jesus left no in- 
structions to his disciples at all concerning his "burial." 
The Gospel accounts make their empty tomb nar- 
rative dependent solely on an angelic visitor or visi- 
tors. The women went to the tomb, remarking on 
the difficulty of rolling away such a monster stone 
from its mouth. Why did they go? Mark's unfinished 
account 1 says to anoint a body which had lain three 
days in the grave (compare John 11:39). Matthew, 
knowing such an errand to be improbable in such a 
hot climate, remarks that they went simply to see the 
tomb. Luke states that they carried spices, but fails 
to state for what purpose. John 19 : 39 has the anoint- 
ing done beforehand by Joseph and Nicodemus. If 
their errand is highly improbable, how about their dis- 
covery upon reaching the tomb, as Bowen suggests? 
Without angelic assistance, the tomb was never 
opened. The body of Jesus must have lain therein 
until it went the way of all flesh; in 70 A. D. the 
Roman invasion destroyed the site. 

Then what does Paul mean when he says : "If Christ 
be not raised from the dead, then is our preaching 
vain, and your faith is also vain" (I Cor. 15:14)? 
Obviously Paul refers to the Christian doctrine of the 

1 B. W. Bacon, "The Making of the New Testament" (Henry- 
Holt & Co., 1912), on p. 170 says: "The story of the Empty 
Sepulchre ... is quite unknown to the primitive resurrection 
preaching," and cites I Cor. 15 : 3-11. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 107 

immortality of the soul, and of the soul of Jesus in 
particular, which had made its escape from the under- 
world into heaven (Acts 2:27). Of this the early 
Resurrection faith consisted. Today, if we believe in 
immortality, we also believe that Jesus is alive as 
much as any other Christian soul. Is this not a su- 
perior conception to that of a dead body reanimated 
and going through all sorts of efforts to prove its 
material existence? 

Then when the risen Lord appeared to his disciples 
back in Galilee, — a marvelous evidence of the depth of 
impression made by that master personality upon all 
who knew and loved him, — they went forth gladly and 
fervently to preach the gospel of the Resurrection. 

19. A Modern Conception of "The End of the 
World." — In Acts 2 :22 the disciple to whom Jesus 
bequeathed his mission spoke of the Great Teacher as 
"a man approved of God." The Bible does not gen- 
erally refer to man in derogatory terms. Man is made 
"in the image of God" (spiritually and mentally, not 
physically, for God is Spirit: John 4:24); and Paul 
speaks of his heathen converts at Corinth as "temples 
of the living God," and "temples of the Holy Spirit." 
Lives which bless the world are all therefore recog- 
nized as in some measure divine. Jesus was the child 
of his own particular place and epoch, and shared some 
of its incorrect ideas, such as demonology, angelology, 
etc. His value to the world, however, does not con- 
sist in the scientific inaccuracy of his conceptions of 
nature, but in his unswerving loyalty to truth, his 
practically perfect character, his undying moral force, 
and in his spiritual enkindling of millions of lives since 



io8 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

his time. He was divine, if ever man was. In him 
the spirit of God dwelt practically one hundred per 
cent. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," he said, 
confidently and optimistically, "but my words shall not 
pass away." His influence has reached down into the 
gutters of life, and picked up the drunkard, the gam- 
bler, the harlot, the thief, — human driftwood, — and 
has inspired them with new self-respect, new cour- 
age, new faith, new ardor, and a new life. "If any 
man be in Christ," said Paul, "he is a new creature: 
old things have passed away, and behold, all things are 
become new !" Where the influence of Jesus and his 
doctrine has penetrated, particularly in heathen lands, 
barbarism and savagery have disappeared; domestic 
life has been purified ; diseases, misery, crime, hope- 
lessness, squalor, filth, degradation, and cruelty have 
vanished. The theologians, however, have been slow 
to acknowledge that Jesus had human limitations. He 
dreamed that he was to come again in the clouds of 
glory within the lifetime of his own generation (Mark 
I 3 : 3°) to judge the world. Twenty centuries have 
rolled by and that expectation has not been fulfilled. 
And although Jesus was mistaken in his literal expec- 
tations, he nevertheless succeeded in bringing to pass 
his real mission, the end of the reign of Mosaic law. 
It is quite probable that the world will never come to 
an end in the Biblical sense, for we must recall that 
the ancient Jews lived in a remote and superstitious 
age, — the prescientific era of human history. 

20. The Coming of the Kingdom of God. — Our 
world-order today is doubtless honeycombed and per- 
meated with wrong and viciousness. If the kingdom 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 109 

of God were to come miraculously today, men and 
women everywhere would not be prepared for it. Some 
will always be on the wrong side of the door. Jesus 
does not speak of the kingdom usually except in fu- 
ture tense. He sought to keep alive the consciousness 
in the human heart that "man does not live by bread 
alone, but every word which proceeds out of the mouth 
of God," — that is by the divine fire of inspiration which 
comes of God, and enables the Christian to keep opti- 
mistic, inspired, and hopeful in the routine of the daily 
tasks of life. Jesus kept aloof from most social, po- 
litical, and legislative problems, because he was not as 
concerned with the reshaping of men's environment 
as he was in reshaping men themselves. He foresaw 
that if all men could be reformed and regenerated, all 
external and mechanical problems of government and 
environment would naturally and automatically solve 
themselves and cease to exist. This was his grand 
solution for all the problems which trouble society; — 
war, divorce, crime, industrial slavery, government, 
legislation, international relationships, and so on. 
Christianity would be like the leaven hid in three 
measures of meal if given a chance to operate. There- 
fore conditions of entrance loom larger in the mind 
of Jesus regarding the kingdom of God, rather than 
what it will be like when it comes ; and "we, according 
to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, 
wherein dwells righteousness and peace" (II Peter 
3:i3)- 



PART II : APPENDIX A. JESUS WAS A RURAL 
PREACHER 

The simple pictorial figures with which Jesus clothed 
his teachings reveal him as a rural preacher, just as 
we have already noted that his numerous allusions to 
the craft of carpentry show him to have been before 
his ministry a laboring man. Some of the allusions to 
rural life are: the sower in the furrow (Matt. 13: 3 et 
seq.) ; the mustard-plant (Matt. 13 : 31) ; the farmer at 
his plow (Matt. 9:62; Luke 17:73); the injured spar- 
rows (Matt. 10:23); the lilies of the field (Matt. 6: 
28, 29; Luke 12:27); the red glow of sunset (Matt. 
16:2); the beggar lying at the gate in rags, and the 
dogs licking his sores (Luke 16:20, 21); the vine- 
yards and vine-dressers (Matt. 20: 1; John 15: 1, 2); 
the shepherd following his sheep (John 10:11-16); 
and the midnight bridal (Matt. 25: 1-12). These were 
common, familiar, objective scenes of his life, and were 
not evolved from the back of his head. The fields 
"white unto harvest" (John 4:35) is a vivid example 
of a landscape lesson. The reader will contrast this 
with the figures of speech employed by Paul, who was 
a city preacher, and had in mind usually the scenes of 
busy city life: the athlete in the arena, the soldier 
clad in armor, and the architecture of edifices built on 
a magnificent scale. 



PART II: APPENDIX B. SOME OF THE EX- 
PRESSIONS JESUS CHRIST HAS MADE 
PROVERBIAL 

"Blind leaders of the blind": Matt. 15: 14. 

"To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel": Matt. 
23 : 24. 

"Whited sepulchres" : Matt. 23 : 27. 

"Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle": Matt. 19:24. 

"Wailing and gnashing of teeth": Matt. 13:42, etc. 

"The strait and narrow way" : Matt. 7 : 14. 

"Solomon in all his glory": Matt. 6:29, etc. 

"The truth shall make you free" : John 8 : 32. 

"Get thee behind me, Satan": Matt. 16: 23. 

"Fishers of men": Matt. 4: 19. 

"Salt of the earth": Matt. 5: 13, etc. 

"To turn the other cheek" : Matt. 5 : 39. 

"Love your enemies" : Matt. 5 : 44. 

"Rain on the just and the unjust" : Matt. 5 : 45. 

"Left hand knowing what your right hand does" : 
Matt. 6:3. 

"Serving two masters" : Matt. 6 : 24. 

"Casting pearls before swine" : Matt. 7 : 6. 

"Wolves in sheep's clothing": Matt. 7: 15. 

"By their fruits ye shall know them" : Matt. 7 : 20. 

"Like a house built upon the sand" : Matt. 7 : 26. 
in 



ii2 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"New wine into old bottles": Matt. 9: 17. 

"Revealed unto babes": Matt. 11:25. 

"Ninety and the nine": Matt. 18: 13. 

"What God hath joined together, let no man put 
asunder" : Matt. 19 : 6. 

"Many called, but few chosen": Matt. 19:30. 

"Eleventh hour" : Matt. 20 : 6. 

"Stone which the builders rejected": Matt. 21:42. 

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's": 
Matt. 22: 21. 

"Outer darkness": Matt. 22: 13. 

"Wars and rumors of wars" : Mat. 24 : 6. 

"Unto everyone that hath shall be given": Matt. 
25 : 29. 

"Sheep and goats" : Matt. 25 : 32. 

"Watch and pray" : Matt. 26:41. 

"They that take up the sword shall perish by the 
sword" : Matt. 26 : 52. 

"No prophet is accepted in his own country" : Luke 
4:24. 

"Tree known by its fruits" : Luke 6 : 44. 

"Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and 
running over": Luke 6: 38. 

"Out of abundance of heart the mouth speaketh": 
Luke 6:45. 

"Wisdom is justified of all her children": Luke 
7:35- 

"Gain the whole world and lose his own soul": 
Matt. 16:26. 

"Good Samaritan": Luke 10:33. 

"Putting a candle under a bushel" : Luke 11 : 33. 

"Hairs of your head are numbered": Luke 12:7. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 113 

"Where your treasure is your heart will be" : Luke 
12:34. 

"Life is more than meat": Luke 12:23. 

"Eat, drink, and be merry": Luke 12: 19. 

"Go into the highways and hedges": Luke 14: 23. 

"Counting the cost": Luke 14:28. 

"Prodigal son": Luke 15: 13. 

"Riotous living": Luke 15: 13. 

"The fatted calf": Luke 15:23. 

"The faithful in least is faithful in much": Luke 
16: 10. 

"Purple and fine linen": Luke 16: 19. 

"It is more blessed to give than to receive": Acts 
20:35. 

"He that humbleth himself shall be exalted" : Luke 
18: 14. 

"Search the scriptures" : John 5 : 39. 

"The poor you have always with you": John 12:8. 



PART II: APPENDIX C: A BRIEF SKETCH OF 
PALESTINE 

Palestine is and always has been probably the most 
unique and interesting country in the world. It 
roughly approximates the state of New Hampshire in 
shape and area. Without Perea, it contains nearly 
9,000 square miles. The Mediterranean Sea has no 
natural harbors in the Holy Land, and this singular 
fact is responsible for the historical exclusiveness of 
the Jewish race, and thus it largely escaped foreign 
contamination. Yet Palestine is the gateway from 
Europe by land into Egypt and Africa, and every 
great world-conqueror from the time of Alexander and 
Pompey down to December 11, 1917, when General 
Allenby's British army wrested Jerusalem for the last 
time from the Turk, has made it the greatest center 
of military activity for the last four thousand years. 
Palestine has every climate on the globe within its 
small confines, non-tropical in the north where wheat 
grows and frost comes, and tropical in the south, where 
the lion thrives, palms and figs grow, and frost never 
comes. The River Jordan is a deep, precipitous can- 
yon, 180 miles long, falling an incline of eighty miles 
from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, and is widest 
at Jericho. The Dead Sea is 1300 feet below the sea- 
level, and is the lowest spot in the world. Its water is 
114 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 115 

dense, mineral, and crystal clear, with a specific grav- 
ity too great to swim or drown in, and its water is 
the saltiest in the world, highly destructive of animal 
and vegetable life. The topographical surface of the 
Holy Land from west to east is: (a) the Mediter- 
ranean coastal plain, varying from seven to twenty 
miles in width; (b) the foothills, varying from three 
to five hundred feet in height; and (c) the Lebanon 
Mountains, from two to four thousand feet high. In 
Palestine the rainy season is from October to May, 
and the dry season from May to October, when it 
NEVER rains. Palestine, thus being the gateway of 
the world in the time of Christ, was the strategic point 
of the divine plan for the propagating of Christianity 
all over the world. 



PART III 
THE LIFE OF PAUL 



PART III 

THE LIFE OF PAUL 

i. The Man and the Time. — Every critical period 
in the history of the world seems to find a leader to 
tide it over the crisis. These men always seem di- 
vinely inspired to meet the emergency; they ARE di- 
vinely inspired, if we believe that God still operates 
through the words and lives of good men and women 
everywhere, and that His expressions of His will are 
not confined exclusively to the pages of the Bible. 
The Jews in the age of Jesus attempted "to shut God 
up in a book", and to imagine that He said His last 
word there, a blunder that well-meaning but mistaken 
people still frequently make. Jesus overthrew this 
doctrine, and proceeded to define Christianity not as a 
book religion, but as a religion of ever-expanding ser- 
vice (John 14: 12). God continues, and will continue 
to express His will through His servants everywhere. 
The litany of saints is a long one. It is not confined to 
any race, class, color, creed, or activity. "It is a spuri- 
ous patriotism," said Charles Evans Hughes at the 
commencement exercises of Wellesley College on June 
14, 1920, "that is linked to the triumph of any creed or 
class, or becomes the vehicle of bigotry." The Boston 
clergyman, who, during the 1920 tercentenary celebra- 
11 9 



120 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

tion of the landing of the Pilgrims, spoke on "The 
Litany of American Saints" voiced the same idea. 
Saints are those who, divinely inspired and with char- 
acter as their greatest asset, serve the greatest number 
of their fellowmen. Inevitably this must transcend 
creed or class, and extend much further than the pages 
of the Bible. A Paul, a Luther, a Francis Xavier, a 
Wesley, a Knox, a Thomas Chalmers, an Aristides, a 
Marcus Aurelius, a Washington, a Lincoln, a William 
Bradford, a Jesse Lazear, — all these served the age in 
which they lived, and the ages to come. Joan of Arc, 
Toussaint L'Ouverture, Nathan Hale, Roger Williams, 
and countless others now gone are on humanity's ros- 
ter of saints. It is a common platitude that Jesus of 
Nazareth came in an age of social and political unrest. 
Religion was dead ; the nature religions had collapsed ; 
a reign of dreary formalism had set in ; spiritual decay 
was beginning to spread like a dry rot throughout the 
whole world. In the hour of world-crisis there emerged 
from a poor, small back-country town in the most 
obscure province of the ancient world, the figure of a 
Carpenter whose character, vision, greatness of heart, 
and inspiration has eclipsed that of every other human 
being who has ever lived. When a man was needed 
with sufficient education, energy, and diplomacy to 
embody the Christian movement into the history of 
the world, to rescue it from provincialism, to make it 
universal, to give it a powerful propulsion into the 
great Gentile spheres of influence of Rome, Greece, 
and Asia that lay without Palestine, he was found in 
the person of the apostle Paul. But, similarly, when 
God wanted a man to strike the shackles of slavery 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 121 

from three millions of American black men, he went 
to the cornfields of Illinois and raised up Abraham 
Lincoln. There can be no essential difference in the 
inspired mission and purity of motive between one of 
humanity's saints and another, except that of degree. 
2. Early Life and Advantages. — Paul, or Saul, as 
he was originally named, was not a Palestinian Jew, 
but a Jew of the Dispersion, born in Tarsus, Cilicia, 
a seaport town of Asia Minor (Acts 21 : 39 and 22: 3). 
It stands on both banks of the Cydnus River which 
roars down from the snow-capped Taurus Mountains, 
becoming virtually an estuary of the Mediterranean 
just below the city proper. Here was that seat of 
Gentile culture, the University of Tarsus, and though 
there is no record of the fact, yet Paul, knowing Greek, 
Hebrew, and Aramaic, may have been under its influ- 
ence directly as he doubtless was indirectly. In Tar- 
sus are still pointed out "St. Paul's Well," "St. 
Paul's Tree," and "St. Paul's House," traditional spots 
of interest to tourists, like the Shakespeare house in 
Stratford and Shylock's house in Venice. Of Paul's 
parents practically nothing is known save that they 
were "Hebrews of the Hebrews" (Philippians 3:5) 
of the tribe of Benjamin (ibid), and strict Pharisees 
(Acts 26: 5). That they were probably well-to-do and 
devout Jews is apparent from the manner in which 
Paul was educated, his later religious zeal both against 
and in behalf of Christianity, and the piety which al- 
ways characterized all his dealings with his fellow- 
men. The date of Paul's birth is a mystery. When 
Stephen was stoned to death about 33 A. D., and his 
persecutors laid their garments at Paul's feet, the 



122 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Book of Acts speaks of the latter as "a young man" 
(7:58). About 62 A. D. when Paul took his appeal 
from the provincial Roman court of Palestine to the 
supreme court of the Emperor Nero, he must have 
been sixty years of age or past. Later, in his "prison 
epistle" to Philemon, written either from Rome or 
Ephesus, he refers to himself in Greek as "old Paul" 
(Philemon 9). Probably Paul was about the same 
age as Jesus. Paul had a married sister living in 
Jerusalem (Acts 23 : 16), which is important at two 
points in his career : his attendance at college in Jeru- 
salem, and his rescue to Caesarea. Saul was Paul's 
Jewish name ; Paulus was his Roman citizenship name, 
— a fairly common name, which he adopted on his first 
missionary excursion into the Gentile world (Acts 13: 
9). Having been born in a Gentile Roman province, 
Paul received certain civic privileges and immunities, 
among which were (1) Trial by Roman law, (2) Free- 
dom from dishonorable penalties, such as scourging 
and crucifixion, and (3) In legal trial the privilege of 
supreme appeal from provincial court to the Emperor. 
Of all these Paul later took full advantage in the hour 
of need. Although Paul was acquainted with Greek 
culture (Acts 17:28 and I Cor. 15:33), he always 
maintained his Rabbinical Jewish identity: "Brought 
up at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22: 3) is quite a lit- 
eral expression in the New Testament, while in our 
day it is altogether figurative. Oral repetition while 
seated on the floor about the teacher was, and still is, 
a common Oriental method of education. Gamaliel, 
the grandson of Hillel, was a liberal Pharisee, an ad- 
mirer of Greek culture, and is known outside of the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 123 

New Testament. A Jewish boy's education was voca- 
tional as well as academic. Jesus learned carpentery ; 
Paul, tent-making* (Acts 18:3), but whether as a 
weaver of the goat's-hair canvas or a maker of the 
tent itself is not clear. This trade enabled him to earn 
a living wherever he went, and to be financially inde- 
pendent of the churches to which he ministered. 

3. Activity Against the Christians and Conversion. 
— Paul's early training and later education naturally 
made of him a conservative Pharisee. He "viewed 
with alarm" the sect of the Nazarenes, finding its 
doctrine utterly hateful and repugnant, and continued 
to "point with pride" to the law of Moses and the 
covenant with Abraham as the sources of revealed 
religion. There are said to have been three hundred 
and sixty-five synagogues in Jerusalem in the time of 
Jesus and Paul, the Jews from outside of Palestine 
maintaining their own. Doubtless Paul was "one of 
Cilicia" who disputed with Stephen (Acts 6:9). If 
so, it will help us to understand his conversion. The 
martyrdom of Stephen is the first point at which Paul 
breaks into the New Testament narrative. He stood 
by, guarding the clothes of the executioners, approv- 
ing the deed under the penalty provided by the law 
against blasphemy, but unable or unwilling to cast a 
stone himself. He heard the dying prayer of the hero : 
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and "Lord, lay not 
this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:59, 60), and the 
impression made must have been deep and abiding. 
But Paul found the first outlet, nevertheless, for his 
energy and ability in assisting in the persecution of 
the Christian sect, and in "making havoc of the 



i2 4 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

church" (Acts 8: 3). In Acts 9: 2, the phrase "of this 
way" indicates that the Christians had not yet split 
off from the Jewish mother church. Saul tried to "put 
out the fire by scattering the brands." With his char- 
acteristic unflagging zeal, Paul went to Caiaphas, the 
high priest, for letters of authority in the synagogues 
of Damascus (Acts 9:2) by which he might extradite 
all members of the sect of the Nazarenes back to the 
capital for trial and punishment. It was on the road 
to Damascus that the highly dramatic incident of 
Paul's conversion occurred (Acts 9:4-7; 22:10; 26: 
14, 15 ). 1 It was simply the reaction of an inherently 
noble nature against a career of cruelty, bloodshed, 
and oppression. That is all the expression "It is hard 
for thee to kick against the goads" (Acts 9:5) can 
possibly mean. The time to meditate enforced by the 
long journey in the desert between the two cities pre- 
cipitated a physical and moral reaction. Paul refers 
to it as a revelation in Galatians 1 : 18, but in I Cor. 
9:1, he states that he saw no vision, but the risen 
Jesus, since there is no evidence that he saw Jesus 
before the crucifixion. As a matter of fact it was prob- 
ably his memory of Stephen that converted Paul. Cer- 
tainly he had heard Jesus described sufficiently well 
before the journey to Damascus. After his conversion, 
Paul was never the same man again. His is the most 
remarkable instance of what Christianity can do for a 
man in the pages of the New Testament. Instead of 

1 In his "The Psychology of Religious Experience" (Houghton- 
Mifflin, 1910), Edward Scribner Ames reminds us that Paul was 
probably a neurotic, and that for men of temperaments like his 
and St. Augustine's, the dramatic method of conversion was 
entirely possible and probable. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 125 

the proud, cruel, vain, boastful, pompous Pharisee 
riding in triumph upon Damascus, we find him ever 
after a kind, humble, courteous, sincere Christian gen- 
tleman. His energy had been diverted into a con- 
structive channel. Paul ever afterward spoke of his 
persecution of the church of which he ultimately be- 
came the leader with great humility and regret (I Cor. 
15:9, 10; Gal. 1:13; Phil. 3:6, etc.). In Damascus 
Paul stayed in the house of Judas (Acts 9: 11), was 
baptized by Ananias (Acts 9: 10-18), and was intro- 
duced to the Christian circle by Barnabas (Acts 9: 
26 and 36), the former still fearful that Paul might be 
a wolf in sheep's clothing. It was finally determined 
that Paul should go as an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 
9: 15; 22: 21 ; 26: 17, 18), since it was obvious that his 
life would no longer be safe in Jerusalem or Palestine 
for any but the very shortest periods of time. For 
he had been a traitor and apostate to his own religion ! 
4. The Next Fourteen Years. — Wherever possible, 
it is preferable to get the facts of Paul's life from his 
letters. The Book of Acts is generally vague in its 
chronology. A favorite expression of the author is 
"many days" (Acts 9:23). After his conversion Paul 
retired into Arabia (Gal. 1:17-23) to formulate his 
plans for the Gentile mission, but how long he re- 
mained is unknown. He lived in Damascus three years 
after his return from Arabia, and certifies that his 
account of his life is true as stated by him (Gal. 1 : 20). 
After three years he had to leave Damascus (Acts 9: 
23-25; II Cor. 11:32, 33) to save his life. He spent 
two weeks in Jerusalem incognito, where he saw Peter, 
and James, the brother of Jesus, but was unknown ex- 



126 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

cept by hearsay to the Judean churches (Gal. 1 : 22). 
Then he went to Tarsus (Acts 9: 30). An interim of 
fourteen years is passed over (Gal. 2:1), except that 
he worked and had some harrowing experiences (II 
Cor. 11). Meanwhile, Antioch, the capital of Syria, 
has become a strong Christian center, the first great 
Gentile center, where the disciples are first called 
Christians. There are two groups of Christian com- 
municants at Antioch: (1) The Jewish group (Acts 
11 : 19), and (2) the Gentile group (Acts 11 : 20). Bar- 
nabas is the minister to the Gentile group (11 : 22), and 
sends for Paul (11:25). They remain here a year 
(11:26), and then depart on the First Missionary 
Journey, which is estimated to have consumed three 
years. This ends the period of fourteen years of 
Galatians 2 : 1, which mentions the trip to Jerusalem, 
given in some detail in Acts 15, at the end of the First 
Journey. The year at Antioch and the three years of 
the First Journey account for four years of the four- 
teen, leaving a blank of ten years which must be passed 
over by Bible students insofar as historical facts of 
Paul's career are available. 

5. The First Missionary Journey. — The theme of 
the Book of Acts, the document which gives us most 
of what we know about Paul's biography, is the rise 
of the Greek, or Gentile, mission. If a diagram of the 
Book of Acts were to be drawn on a blackboard, it 
would best represent a series of concentric semicircles 
spreading north of the city of Jerusalem as the com- 
mon center. Each semicircle would represent a geo- 
graphical phase of the spread of the Christian propa- 
ganda from its original headquarters in Jerusalem. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 127 

For the first semicircle (Acts 8:4), Paul himself was 
directly responsible. The second is represented in 
Acts 9:2. Acts 11:19 is a third semicircle. The 
fourth is the territory of southern Asia Minor covered 
by the First Missionary Journey of Acts 13-14. The 
fifth would be the territory of the Second Journey 
(Acts 15:36 to 18:22) extending over into Europe. 
The sixth would stretch as far as Rome (Acts 28: 
16). On the First Missionary Journey Paul started 
forth with Barnabas, his former sponsor at Damascus, 
and the latter's nephew or relative, John Mark (Acts 
12: 25; 13:6; Col. 4: 10). The three start to the isle 
of Cyprus, which was Barnabas' old home, and not 
virgin territory, from Seleucia, the seaport of Antioch, 
Syria, named after Seleucus Nicator, a general of Alex- 
ander the Great, who also built Laodicea. At Paphos 
the seat of the worship of Venus, Paul destroyed the 
influence of Elymas, a professional swindler and "sor- 
cerer," and converted Sergius Paulus, Roman pro- 
consul, who is also mentioned in Pliny's "Natural 
History." It is noteworthy that in Acts 13: 1, 2, and 
7, Saul is named last, but in Acts 13: 9 he changes his 
name from its conspicuously Jewish connotation to 
that of the Roman "Paulus," becoming thus a "citizen 
of the world" ; and in Acts 13 : 13, it is no longer "Bar- 
nabas and Saul," but the completely revolutionized 
expression "Paul and his company." Upon reaching 
the mainland of Asia Minor at Perga in Pamphylia, 
John Mark, for some unknown reason, usually con- 
strued as cowardice, deserted his two elder compan- 
ions (Acts 13 : 13), leaving them to go their way alone. 
The prospect would doubtless have daunted a less stout 



128 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

heart than that of the youthful Mark. In order to 
reach the plateau tableland of this vast peninsula, the 
snow-capped Taurus Mountains must be scaled 
through the narrow Cilician gates. Dens of robbers ; 
roaring, precipitous rivers plunging headlong down 
the rocky cliffs for miles and miles, with few or no 
bridges worthy the name spanning them ; solitary 
ledges, lakes, and deserts ; and behind all a population 
of barbarians, confronted these pilgrims on their mis- 
sion. These once overcome, the Book of Acts con- 
sistently throughout describes a recurrent scheme of 
treatment of Paul and the early Christian propaganda : 
preaching as strangers in the synagogue on the Sab- 
bath, while on week-days quietly working at the trade 
of tent-making ; conversions ; stirring up of hostilities 
on the part of the Jewish residents ; physical violence ; 
and finally deportation as undesirable aliens. The 
First Journey covered about 1400 miles, one-half of 
which was by water. It is estimated that three years 
were consumed in making it. But did Paul and Bar- 
nabas visit only half a dozen towns? Iconium, Lystra, 
Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia, and Perga were apparently 
left with vigorous churches. Paul, instead of making 
a complete circuit of the peninsula, retraced his foot- 
steps from Derbe back to Perga, revisiting the towns in 
which his life had been imperilled, which act in itself 
was sufficient to convince his converts of the sincerity 
of his message. Some scholars, like Bernard Pick, 
have imagined that Paul was imprisoned for a time in 
Iconium, but this must remain an open question. The 
conclusion of this journey, in which Paul acknowledged 
his dependence on the Jerusalem church, ends the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 129 

period of fourteen years mentioned in Gal. 2:1. Here, 
then, follows in Acts 15, the famous trip to Jerusalem 
of Gal. 2:1. The four preceding years are roughly 
accounted for, one at Antioch, three on the First Jour- 
ney, leaving a blank of ten years (Gal. 2:1) unac- 
counted for. 

6. The Council at Jerusalem. — (Acts 15; Gal. 2: 
1-10). There is a great mass of literature on the strik- 
ing discrepancies of Acts 15 and Gal 2:1-10. Paul 
was at the Council ; the author of Acts apparently was 
not. Paul is concerned mainly with bringing out the 
historical facts and the truth. Galatians was written 
with very obvious vexation, for Paul says, "An agree- 
ment was reached, and we shook hands upon it" (Gal. 
2:9). Titus is not mentioned in Acts; in Galatians 
2, he is held up as a sample convert of the case in 
point. If the external rites and ceremonies of Judaism 
are necessary to becoming a good Christian, then 
much of Paul's work has been already false and vain. 
Therefore, a compromise was reached : (1) The Jewish 
group was to come into the church on the basis of 
ritualism if they so desired; (2) the Gentile group 
might enter without the Jewish rites (Gal. 2 : 9). Paul 
foresaw that in the last analysis there could be no 
divergence in Christian principle between Gentile and 
Jew. Ordinarily a strict Jew would not eat at the 
same table with a Gentile for the latter was not cere- 
monially pure. The question was : what was to be 
the future relationship of these two groups? Was 
Christianity common ground enough to obliterate 
eventually this prejudice? Paul foresaw the verdict 
of history, but was broad enough to make a compro- 



130 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

mise to meet the present emergency. "If salvation 
come by THE LAW," said he, "then Christ died for 
nought" (Galatians 2:21). It was agreed at this 
council that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Gen- 
tiles, and Peter, James, John, and so forth, to the Jews. 
It is notable that wherever we meet the Apostle Peter 
in the New Testament, he is always the same : impul- 
sive, rash, emotional, yet amenable to reason appar- 
ently, his conclusions always being followed by an 
opposite reaction (Gal. 2:11, 12). He is always get- 
ting a rebuke, either from Jesus or Paul. The Book 
of Acts shows Peter as impulsive and active, engaged 
commonly in some form of Christian propaganda, too 
often with a seeming lack of fixed principles. He 
visits Antioch after the Council at Jerusalem, and 
eats with the Gentiles; but when a messenger from 
James, bishop of Jerusalem, arrives, he swings back to 
the Jews, even Barnabas, apostle to the Gentiles, being 
carried away by the sudden reactionary impulse (Gal. 
2: 13). Acts 15 dovetails into one account several dis- 
cussions continued over a lengthy period, with Paul 
both present and absent. The final "decrees" repre- 
sent the culmination of the discussions on ceremonial 
diet rather than the original problem of the Gentiles 
becoming Christians via the Old Testament church 
with its cumbrous ceremonialism. Galatians 2 clings 
tenaciously and pointedly to the original question, 
while Acts 15 blends the solution of various questions 
presented in the council. The Jewish Christian church 
at this very point begins to dry up at its source, and 
the living church is Paul's church by the end of the 
first century A. D. With Acts 15, Peter and Barnabas 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 131 

vanish from the New Testament narrative. From this 
point on the Book of Acts is a spotlight turned upon 
Paul and his labors, while the church at Jerusalem is 
staged ever after in darkness. But it is not to be sup- 
posed that the Council at Jerusalem settled once and 
for all the question Paul sought to have settled. Paul 
was, in fact, tormented all his life by the extreme reac- 
tionary wing of fanatical Jews, who followed in his 
wake, crept into his churches, and whispered to his 
converts that he was deceiving them. They threw 
his churches into confusion and doubt, as the scathing 
arraignment of their activities by Paul in Galatians 
too well evidences. They plotted secretly and openly 
against the apostle's life until it is almost a miracle 
that he lived to complete his mission as well as he did. 
But he triumphed, and his views have become the 
verdict of history. 

7. The Second Missionary Journey. — Paul is now 
independent of the Jerusalem church absolutely, ex- 
cept that he remembers his promise to the poor of 
the Palestinian Jewish churches (Gal. 2: 10; Acts 24: 
17). Acts hereafter deals almost exclusively with 
Paul, and in 16: 10 drops suddenly into the first per- 
son (one of the "We-Sections"), indicating first, that 
it is a sort of diary, and second, that the author, Luke 
(or possibly Titus), joined Paul's party at that point. 
Paul proceeds to visit the churches of the first jour- 
ney, and at Lystra picks up Timothy, who becomes 
ever after one of his dearest companions (Philippians 
2:19-24). The "impulsion" is ever westward (Acts 
16:7), an d little is said of churches and missionary 
work on the continent of Asia. Galatians 4: 13 tells 



132 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

us that he was compelled to stop for a time on account 
of illness, doubtless his "thorn in the flesh" (literally, 
"a sharp stake driven through the flesh") of II Cor. 
12:7. In the latter verse the English word "buffet" 
in the Greek is the cruder "knock down," which indi- 
cates a physical obsession like epilepsy, or "falling 
sickness." Another indication in favor of the epileptic 
theory is the language of Galatians 4:14, where the 
English word "rejected" in the Greek is literally "spit 
out at." People spit on the ground in Paul's day 
whenever witnessing an epileptic convulsion to ward 
off demonic influence supposed to cause that disease, 
much as ignorant peasants today cross their fingers to 
ward off the "evil eye." There are abundant evidences 
in Paul's own writings as well as in Acts that he was 
an epileptic and a neurotic. Witness the trance of 
Acts 22: 17, the visions and infirmities of II Cor. 12: 
1-10, and the dramatic and peculiar manner of his con- 
version (Acts 9 : 1-9 ; 22 : 5-1 1 ; 26 : 9-20). His constant 
references to weakness and physical distress, his exalted 
and nervous manner of speaking, his collapses in a state 
of great excitement, as when he first saw the magnitude 
of his task at Corinth (I Cor. 2:3), indicate a now 
conscious, now subconscious, realization of his afflic- 
tion. Biblical scholars have advanced other theories : 
deafness, malaria, sick headache, opthalmia, disfigur- 
ing disease, etc., to explain the "thorn in the flesh," 
but epilepsy seems to be the most plausible and likely 
equivalent. 

There were at least four in Paul's party, Paul, Silas, 
Timothy, and Luke (Acts 16: 10), at Troas, probably 
in autumn of 51 A. D. When Paul and his party 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 133 

crossed the Aegean, the status of the modern world 
was definitely settled, for it meant that Europe and 
America, not Asia and the Orient, would first become 
Christian. Troas was historic ground already. The 
poet Horace had said that if Troy were to be rebuilt, 
like the African Carthage, its strategic position would 
undermine in time the domination of Rome over the 
ancient world. It was here that Xerxes and his three 
million Asiatics made a futile attempt to overrun 
Europe. Here the Homeric heroes are alleged to have 
fought and bled because of "the face that launched a 
thousand ships." And here the spiritual destiny of 
modern civilization was determined by a handful of 
men. 

(a) Philippi, or "Philip's Town" was the first place 
of any importance where a halt was made. Paul's stay 
here was indefinite (Acts 16: 12). There was no Jew- 
ish colony or synagogue in this place, and the 
proseucha by the riverside was the only place of wor- 
ship. The first converts in Europe were women. 
Lydia sold madder-root, or some form of dye-stuff. 
Paul and Silas were arrested, beaten, and thrown into 
prison here, even though Roman citizens, and at first 
opportunity Paul hurled a thunderbolt at the police- 
magistrates (Acts 16: 2>7), that they were destined not 
soon to forget. Paul again refers to this in I Thes. 
2 : 2. Paul's church at Philippi was his best-beloved 
church, and to them he writes his most cordial and af- 
fectionate letter (Phil. 1:3, 4; 2:12, 15; 4:1, 19, 23, 
etc.). Paul left a considerable church at Philippi. 
More conversions are named (Phil. 4:2, 3), and from 
now on it becomes imperative to supplement the ac- 



134 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

count in Acts with names and details from Paul's own 
letters. Repeatedly Paul accepts money from Philippi 
(Phil. 4: 15, 16), as he will do from no other church. 
The Letter to the Philippians was written to them in 
acknowledgment of gifts, and especially to Epaphro- 
ditus. In this connection, the letter might profitably 
be read. 

(b) Thessalonica, 100 miles south of Philippi, the 
modern Salonica or Saloniki, and the second city of 
European Turkey, was the second main stop of Paul's. 
It was the capital of Macedonia, and, unlike Philippi, 
contained a goodly proportion of Jews. Thessalonica 
speedily became a sort of Christian headquarters (I 
Thess. 1 : 8), and has maintained a powerful Chris- 
tian church from Paul's day to the present, Islam hav- 
ing been unable to make any permanent inroads. Here 
Paul proceeded "to turn the world upside down" (Acts 
17 : 6), and met with the same old program of oppo- 
sition, although no Jews are mentioned in I Thessa- 
lonians. Acts gives us a very incomplete and unsatis- 
factory account of Paul's stay in Thessalonica. For 
instance, Jason is introduced very abruptly into the 
account (Acts 17: 5), without any explanation or clue 
as to his identity. But I Thessalonians gives us a 
somewhat fuller idea of the missionary trials at Thes- 
salonica. It should be read in this connection. Ap- 
parently the Thessalonians had "turned unto God from 
idols" (I Thess. 1:9; 2: 14), for the Gentile audience 
required everything from the ground up : God, moral- 
ity, a new basis of family life, respect for the human 
body, and the A-B-C of personal decency, all of which 
the Jewish audience already possessed. Some of Paul's 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 135 

Thessalonian converts were Aristarchus and Secundus 
(Acts 19:29; 20:4; 27:2; Col. 4:10; Philemon 24), 
and Jason (Acts 17:5; Romans 16:21). While here 
Paul received financial help from Philippi (Phil. 4: 15). 
(c) Berea. — Forced to leave Thessalonica by hostile 
Jews, Paul and his company came to Berea, where 
they met the usual program of hostilities, this time 
incited by Jews who followed the missionaries thither 
from Thessalonica (Acts 17:13). Paul alone is de- 
ported to Athens to wait for Silas and Timothy, the 
latter having been sent back from Berea to Thessa- 
lonica by the Apostle to find out how the church there 
was faring (Acts 17 : 15 ; I Thess. 3:2). Paul has heard 
of a persecution at Thessalonica since leaving there, 
and is fearful that the little church will be torn out 
by the roots (I Thess. 2: 17, 18; 3:4). Paul sends a 
letter — I Thessalonians — written from Athens after 
receiving word from Timothy that they have success- 
fully withstood all hostile opposition (I Thess. 3:6). 
At this point, bearing these facts in mind, it will be 
well to read I Thessalonians, Paul's first epistle, which 
is short and will virtually explain itself in the light of 
what has been said. Sopater (Acts 20:4; Romans 16: 
21) is a typical Berean convert of Paul's. 

The First Letter to the Thessalonians (A) 

This letter was not named I Thessalonians by Paul 
himself, but by editorial compilers. In the Greek New 
Testament the longer letter is called "alpha" and the 
shorter, "beta." The letter reveals conspicuously the 
motive for its having been written. Was it written 
in reply to a letter from the Thessalonians? This 



136 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

view has been taken by critics like Rendel Harris, 
Eleanor Wood, and Bacon, but, of course, is merely 
speculative. The letter is short, easy to read, and di- 
vides very neatly : 

I. The Personal Division. (Chapters 1-3). 

A. Chap. 1 : Praise for the Thessalonians, 
personal, hearty, and tactful. 

B. Chap. 2: 1-16: Paul's personal defense. 

C. Chap. 2: 17-3:13: A description of the 
present situation, and the circumstances of 
writing. 

II. The Doctrinal Division. (Chapters 4-5). 

A. Chap. 4: 1-12: Christian conduct out- 
lined. 

B. Chap. 4:13-5:11: Eschatology, or "the 
end of the world." 

C. Chap. 5: 12-18: Closing advice. 

Note again two characteristics of the Thessalonians : 
(1) They were heathen ("Ye turned unto God from 
idols": 1:9); and (2) they had a certain disorderly, 
unruly element among their number whose conduct 
apparently did not meet with Paul's full approval as 
Christian citizenship (4: 11 ; 5: 12-14). 

Let us also read in this connection the Second Let- 
ter to the Thessalonians, which has only three brief 
chapters, and presents some marked peculiarities which 
cast some doubt on its being genuinely Pauline. 

The Second Letter to the Thessalonians (B) 

The Second Letter to the Thessalonians resembles 
the first letter strikingly. It contains the same his- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 137 

torical and doctrinal themes in the same order and 
the same language, mentions the same unruly and dis- 
orderly elements dwelt upon in the first letter, and re- 
calls the fact that the Apostle Paul earned his own 
living while among the Thessalonians in spite of the 
fact that he was minister to the church. This letter 
contains 825 words, of which more than 150 are iden- 
tical in grammatical structure (in the Greek) with 
those in the first letter. A careful reading, however, 
and comparison with the first letter confirms the sus- 
picion that II Thessalonians is merely a pale reflex of 
I Thessalonians. It appears to be pseudo-Pauline, writ- 
ten probably by a Pauline Christian or disciple, in an 
effort to correct effectively some prevalent misconcep- 
tion in the church as Paul would do if he were living. 
A reading of the letter discloses what the misconcep- 
tion was. The church had been receiving forged let- 
ters which had given a false impression of the his- 
torical phenomena which were to precede the "end of 
the world" (I Thess. 2: 1-12). It cannot be too often 
repeated, however, that it was perfectly permissible 
in ancient times for disciples of ancient philosophers 
and teachers to forge the names of the latter thus to 
the documents. The same problem exactly is pre- 
sented by the Shakespeare apocrypha ("Pericles," etc.) 
and pseudo-Plato. These documents usually reveal the 
fact that they are written by men of inferior power, 
personality, and ability. The genuineness of II Thes- 
salonians is, of course, an open question. Von Soden, 
Peake, Moffatt, and McGiffert point out the similari- 
ties of the two letters in "tables" of resemblance. 
Julicher, Drummond, Burton, and Goodspeed think it 



138 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Pauline, but inferior in spiritual value. Harnack thinks 
tHat it is Pauline, but considerably excised and inter- 
polated by later hands. 

Briefly, the arguments that it is pseudo-Pauline are : 

1. It is much less fresh and warm in tone than 

I Thessalonians. It is more judicial and deliberate in 
tone. Note the salutation, which seems pseudo- 
Pauline : "We are bound to give thanks for you," etc. 
(II Thess. 1:3). 

2. It assumes a distinct tone of authority. Com- 
manding, rather than the old familiar Pauline "be- 
seeching" of the first letter, becomes the key to action. 

3. The use of the word "traditions" (II Thess. 
2:15 and 3:6) is glaringly conspicuous. This word 
means always in the Bible, a body of authoritative 
teachings, usually if not always, ancient. Paul uses 
this word in three places (Gal. I: 14; Col. 2:8; I Cor. 
11:2) in its proper definition. Would he use it in 

II Thessalonians to refer to his own doctrine? We 
think not. If we assume, however, that this epistle is 
pseudo-Pauline, then the word is used in a more nearly 
correct sense by a Pauline Christian who models after 
I Thessalonians as he writes. 

4. The letter consciously alludes to forgeries of let- 
ters (II Thess. 2: 2). 

5. In II Thess. 3 : 17, the writer clevely conceals on 
the surface, which was allowable in his day, the fact 
that the epistle is pseudo-Pauline. The word "sign" 
or "token" in 3:17 is an assurance that the letter is 
genuine. That counterfeits are possible is consciously 
referred to (2:2); that they will be frequent is also 
asserted (2:1553: 14). The writer is so self-conscious 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 139 

throughout on the forgery proposition that he practi- 
cally betrays himself. 

6. The great sweeping argument against the Paul- 
ine authorship of II Thessalonians by all odds is the 
famous antichrist, or "man of sin" passage (2: 1-12). 
"Anti-Christ" in the New Testament does not mean 
an opponent of the Messiah necessarily, but simply a 
pseudo-Messiah who may appear, having never heard 
himself possibly of the real Messiah, Jesus. The prep- 
osition means in this instance "instead of" rather than 
"against." This passage, as a matter of fact, contains 
the heart of the message of this letter, which inevitably 
must stamp it pseudo-Pauline. Briefly, a preliminary 
program must be gone through with before the "end 
of the world" when Jesus shall come again. There 
will first be an apostasy, or falling away from the 
Christian faith, followed immediately by the appear- 
ance of a pseudo-Messiah, or "man of sin." There will 
be a removal of the restraining hand that holds back 
the man of sin. He will work great signs and won- 
ders. When finally he sets himself up in the temple 
above God, then comes the Parousia ("second com- 
ing") of Jesus Christ (Mark 13:24-30). I Thessa- 
lonians teaches that the Parousia will be sudden (4: 16; 
5:2, 3); II Thessalonians teaches an extended prelim- 
inary program which will reveal in advance when the 
Parousia is to be. 

The reader may well imagine that a mass of specu- 
lative commentary exists as to the identity of the man 
of sin. Certainly such a conception was very vivid 
and intelligible to the Christian mind of the time of 
Paul and immediately after. The term anti-christ oc- 



140 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

curs twice in I John and once in II John. Pseudo- 
Messiahs are mentioned in the Book of Acts (Acts 5 : 
34-39). Revelation refers to anti-christs. About ten 
years after the death of Jesus, the Emperor Caligula 
(which means "Little Boot"), wanted to set up his 
statue in the Temple at Jerusalem to be worshipped 
as a god. In a frenzy the Jews repeatedly sent dele- 
gations to Rome in vain to forestall such hideous 
blasphemy. Fortunately, the vessel conveying the 
image was sunk en route to the coast of Palestine, 
which unavoidably delayed the establishment of the 
cult of emperor-worship in the Jewish capital. Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes, of Syria, about 168 B. C, captured 
Jerusalem and erected an altar to Jupiter in the Tem- 
ple on which he sacrificed swine, the abomination of 
the Jews, and vilely profaned the sacred edifice in a 
manner thus which they could never forget or forgive. 
Nero, who slaughtered Christians wholesale, may have 
been the man of sin here. After the death of Nero, 
the horrible ogre of the early church, the rumor 
gained great headway that he was only in conceal- 
ment, and would one day return unexpectedly to con- 
tinue his unspeakably inhuman and terrible persecu- 
tions. This legend gained him the name of "Nero 
Redivivus" — Nero revived, or come back to life. This 
is mentioned disguisedly in Revelation 13 and 17. In 
fact the curious parallel between II Thess. 2 and Rev- 
elation 13 has been noted frequently by Bible stu- 
dents. The reference to the "image of the beast" (Rev. 
13: 15) and the fate of his worshippers (Rev. 19:20) 
must have been extremely vivid to the early Chris- 
tians. In modern times a practical man might, under 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 141 

the same circumstances, regard it as purely a form, 
make mental reservations, and thus not necessarily 
predicate divinity with the emperor or his image. But 
the naive, primitive Christians, in a manner which we 
cannot fully appreciate today, refused to compromise 
between the form and the substance. Armenia re- 
fused to do it in the terrible days of Mohammedan 
oppression of just a few years ago. The Book of 
Revelation set its face resolutely against external com- 
promise. II Thessalonians does the same by infer- 
ence, but not directly. 

If Paul held personally this conception of a his- 
torical program to be fulfilled before the second coming 
of Jesus, he surely must have held it as a fundamental 
doctrine. But in none of the rest of his letters is it 
mentioned at all in connection with the "end of the 
world," and it conflicts sharply with I Thessalonians 
on this subject. It adds nothing to our estimate of 
Paul. If Paul held this conception, it must be added 
to our estimate of him. 

(d) Athens. — Resuming Paul's second journey, we 
have found him staying in Athens awaiting word from 
Timothy as to how the church at Thessalonica was 
faring. Meantime, worried as he was, he was not idle. 
How long he was in Athens we have no means of 
knowing. Browning's poem "Cleon" attempts to give 
us an idea of the manner in which Athenians regarded 
him. The Mars Hill sermon of Acts 17 is regarded 
as a masterpiece of oratory, although, of course, it can- 
not be a verbatim stenographic report of the speech, 
nor anything more than a fragment of a public ad- 
dress. Paul follows the latest approved methods ad- 



142 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

vocated in public speaking of "getting in the experi- 
ence of his audience" by referring to ideas and objects 
with which they are already familiar, — by proceeding 
from the known to the unknown. This is partly what 
he meant when he said, "I am made all things to all 
men" (I Cor. 9:22). To the barbarians he spoke of 
their stomachs and food (Acts 14: 17); to the Greeks 
he spoke of athletics (I Cor. 9: 24-27, etc.), and quoted 
their own poets (Acts 17: 29; I Cor. 15 : 33), Cleanthes 
and Menander. Paul at Athens made what he after- 
wards himself considered a serious blunder, and which 
he radically corrected at Corinth (I Cor. 2: 1-5), name- 
ly, preaching "worldly wisdom" instead of the ele- 
mentary facts of the gospel. In this manner he ac- 
counted for his failure at Athens, a city to which, 
as far as is known, he never returned. Nevertheless, 
Dionysius and Damaris are mentioned as Athenian 
converts in Acts 17:24. 

(e) Corinth. — Paul arrived at Corinth ill (I Cor. 
2:3). This city was fifty miles from Athens, the capi- 
tal of Achaia, and noted for its splendor, luxury, profli- 
gacy, and vice. Here was the magnificent Temple of 
Apollo with its fifteen massive columns, each twenty- 
three feet high and six feet in diameter. Here was a 
citadel of wickedness indeed, and Paul was brought 
face to face with base and wholesale corruption. Re- 
membering his Athenian experiences, facing this new 
tremendous task, we cannot wonder at his "illness 
and fear" (I Cor. 2: 1-4, etc.). But Paul immediately 
determined and held steadfastly to his resolution, not 
to follow the "worldly wisdom" he had tried in Athens, 
but to stick to fundamental, elementary preaching (I 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 143 

Cor. 2: 1-5 and 4:15, etc.). At Corinth he found a 
congenial Roman couple for hosts of the same trade 
(Acts 18:2), whose names are mentioned six times 
in the New Testament, in four of which the wife's 
name stands first: Priscilla and Aquila, tentmakers. 
Acts nearly always confines itself to Paul's activities 
among the Jews until the sharp reaction comes (Acts 
18 : 6), when he turns from them to the Gentiles. But 
I Corinthians addresses the church as Gentiles only 
(I Cor. 10:7, 14 and 12: 1), "carried away by dumb 
idols," and discusses typical heathen shortcomings of 
theirs in the light of the gospel (I Cor. 5 and 6). In 
I Cor. 8, 9, and 10, Paul discusses the diet problem for 
them. Apparently the lower classes of Corinth were 
chiefly converted by Paul (I Cor. 1:26-28 and 7:21), 
and the world of fashion, wealth and intellect was 
sparingly represented, although Gaius (I Cor. 1:14; 
Romans 16:23), an d Erastus, treasurer of the city of 
Corinth (Romans 16:23) belonged to the latter class. 
Stephanas was Paul's first convert in Achaia (I Cor. 
1:16 and 16:15). Other Corinthian converts were 
Fortunatus and Achaicus (I Cor. 16:17); Crispus 
(Acts 18:8; I Cor. 1 : 14); and Sosthenes (Acts 18: 17; 
I Cor. 1:1). Why Sosthenes was beaten and by whom 
(Acts 18: 17) is unknown, unless because he was a 
poor prosecutor. Acts is vague here again, as fre- 
quently. Paul remained in Corinth a year and a half 
(Acts 18: 11), arriving probably in the fall of 52 A. D., 
and leaving in the spring of 54. Every two years there 
was held near Corinth the Isthmian Games, a bien- 
nial athletic festival. It is known to have occurred in 
53 A. D. while Paul was at Corinth. Whether he at- 



144 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

tended or not is, of course, doubtful, but certainly I 
Corinthians is full of figures of speech based upon 
athletics, notably the passage 9 : 23-27. Paul's policy 
at Corinth was elementary, but was well justified by 
the subsequent course of events. How the gospel mes- 
sage spread throughout Achaia is indicated by II Cor. 
1 : 1 and 11 : 10. 

Although I Corinthians was written from Ephesus 
during the Third Missionary Journey some time later, 
in order that we profit the most from New Testament 
study, we shall now read I and II Corinthians, to get 
a complete picture of a typical Pauline church and its 
problems, which may serve as a basis for our pictures 
of all the other churches. 

The First Letter to the Corinthians : (Corinthians B) 

Corinth, a center of profligacy and corruption in the 
ancient world, had a church established there with 
much difficulty by Paul. Apparently one of the dis- 
ciples of John the Baptist, named Apollos, had sowed 
the seed of Christianity in Corinth some time before 
(Acts 18:27; I Cor. 3:6). In characterizing Apollos 
the Greek uses the word "boiling" rather than "fer- 
vent" (Acts 18: 25) in describing his eloquence. Many 
naturally preferred the elaborate, oratorical Apollos 
to the plain-spoken Paul, since oratory was something 
of an art among the ancient Greeks (I Cor. 13: 1). 

I Corinthians 1 : 10 indicates from that point on that 
the church at Corinth had split up into bickering fac- 
tions. There was a "Paul party" and an "Apollos 
party" and a "Cephas party." As these cliques in the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 145 

church were hard to eradicate, I Cor. 16: 12 indicates 
that Apollos had been sufficiently diplomatic to resign 
his work at Corinth and to return home to Ephesus. 
There appears to have been a certain hostility to Paul 
himself (I Cor. 4: 18-21), which he feels obliged to 
overcome. Paul appeals to common sense in the solu- 
tion of the difficulty (I Cor. 1 : 12, 13). 

Moreover, there were certain sad blemishes among 
the Corinthian Christians which seem to have been 
common everyday occurrences (Chapters 5 and 6, esp. 
note 6:11 and 6: 19). These people, but recently res- 
cued from heathenism (10:7, 14; 12:2), had not yet 
learned one of the great fundamentals of life, health, 
strength, and character, — respect for the human body. 

In I Corinthians 6 : 6-8, Paul reproves them for 
dragging their domestic and civil difficulties before 
pagan magistrates in the Corinthian courts of justice, 
and thus discrediting and disgracing the Christian 
movement in the eyes of unbelievers. 

In fact, I Corinthians deals with a multiude of con- 
crete matters that throw a flood of light on the Graeco- 
Roman world of that day, and that constitute a sort 
of interesting "source-book" of materials for the his- 
torian of ancient times. In I Cor. 1:11 and 16:17, 
Paul gives the source of his information regarding 
affairs at Corinth, namely, Chloe's family. I Cor. 16:8 
and 10 indicate that Paul wrote from Ephesus ; and I 
Cor. 7 : 1 says that this epistle is in reply to one writ- 
ten to him containing inquiries on various matters, 
some of which were not covered by the doctrine of 
Jesus (I Cor. 7: 12, 25). Apparently Paul has written 
a letter prior to this one to Corinth (I Cor. 5:9, 11), 



146 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

which is now lost, or exists only in fragment. There 
are some verses in I Corinthians which defy explana- 
tion (7:36-38; 11: 10; 15:29) and possibly never will 
be adequately interpreted to satisfy all schools of Bib- 
lical interpretation. I Corinthians 13 is a justly cele- 
brated parenthesis in the letter which sums up to our 
mind the whole message of Christianity. I Corinthians 
15 is a reply to the question as to the fate of the dead 
who have not lived to see the Second Coming of Jesus, 
now imminently expected by Paul and the Corinthian 
church. I Cor. 16: 13 contains a final injunction to 
reckless Greeks. 

The whole letter may be neatly outlined as follows : 

Outline of I Corinthians for Reading Guide: 

Chapters 1-4: The "party spirit." 

Chapters 5-6 : Necessity of respect for the human body. 
Chapters 7-15: A series of answers to specific in- 
quiries from Corinth: 

(a) Ch. 7: The question of marriage or celibacy 
in the Christian life. Paul himself, doubtless 
unmarried, does not view marriage from a 
sympathetic standpoint, partly because he be- 
lieves the Second Coming of Jesus and the 
"end of the world" to be imminent, which fact 
would seem to make marriage superfluous. 

(b) Ch. 8, 9, 10: The question of eating meat sac- 
rificed to idols. Paul concludes that "an idol 
is nothing," and that therefore it cannot af- 
fect the food offered to it as such; but, fur- 
ther, that if some person of less understand- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 147 

ing could not accede to this broad view in 
the act of becoming a Christian, Paul advises 
complete abstinence to win him over. 
(c) Ch. 11, 12, 13, 14: Problems of the church- 
service : 

(1) 11:1-16 — The behavior of women in 
church. (A puzzling and unsympathetic at- 
titude to modern readers). 

(2) 11 : 17-34 — the administration of the com- 
munion service. 

(3) 12, 13, 14 — The exercise of spiritual gifts, 
some of which are now obsolete practices. 
For instance, the "gift of tongues" was a 
sort of mystic babbling, which Paul warns 
against in excess as a waste of time in 
church (14:27, 28). 

(4) 15 — The resurrection of the dead who 
have not lived to see the Second Coming, 
now so imminently expected by the Corin- 
thians and Paul himself. This is the first 
extended discussion of the resurrection to 
be written in a New Testament document. 

Chapter 16: Final injunctions and greetings. 

The Mystery of Second Corinthians : (Corinthians 
A, C, and D) 

Reading thoughtfully the letter commonly called 
Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians leaves one 
with a curious impression regarding its unity. Is it all 
one letter or a medley of fragments? Having read I 
Corinthians carefully, which is undoubtedly a unity, 



148 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

II Corinthians impresses one as a patchwork or "crazy 
quilt" of vaguely related facts, threats, and exhorta- 
tions. 

Approaching this letter for analysis, it is evident 
that Paul had been to Corinth a second time since the 
Second Journey visit of 52-54 A. D., before writing 
this epistle (II Cor. 13:1, 2), and the visit had not 
been a happy one (2:1-4). Paul had been insulted 
and slandered (chapters 2, 7, and 10). II Corinthians 
2 : 4 refers to a famous "Sorrowful Letter" which he 
had written to his recalcitrant church, and which some 
scholars now consider to be "lost." See 2 : 9 and 7 : 
8-12 for further evidences of this letter and its general 
effectiveness in disciplining the church. These schol- 
ars advance the theory that the Corinthians in anger 
or shame destroyed this letter. 

Paul had sent Titus, however, to Corinth with a 
"Reconciliation Letter," and II Cor. 2:12, 13 and 
7 : 6, 13, 14 show that he awaited Titus' word as to how 
the church at Corinth was faring; how Titus brought 
back a good report (2: 14), and how Paul is not sorry 
that he wrote the letter (2: 1, 4). This section of the 
story seems to conclude abruptly at II Cor. 9: 15. 

In 1870, a German scholar, Hausrath, advanced the 
theory that II Corinthians 10-13 inclusive, may con- 
stitute the "Sorrowful Letter," or a fragment of it, 
because the tone is bitter and the words are stinging 
and ironical, as an impartial reading will show. This 
theory is now universally held among New Testament 
scholars. 

Meanwhile, as Paul awaited Titus, he (Paul) was 
driven from Ephesus (II Cor. 2: 12; Acts 20: 1). 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 149 

These somewhat fortuitous facts gleaned from this 
letter lead one to believe that II Corinthians is not, 
therefore, a single unified letter, but a patchwork of 
three fragments of letters as follows: 

1. A Letter from Paul to Corinth: (II Cor. 6: 14- 
7:1). 

2. The "Sorrowful Letter": (II Cor. 10-13). 

3. The "Reconciliation Letter": (II Cor. 1-9). 

It will repay the New Testament student to read 
(1) above, and then re-read I Corinthians 7: 12-16, to 
see how Paul revised his former judgment with regard 
to marriage between Christians and pagans. But we 
must fit I Corinthians into Paul's relationship to the 
Corinthian church here somewhere along the line in 
order to have a completely unified impression of this 
relationship. The following diagram will be, we be- 
lieve, illuminating in the interpretation of the four 
letters to the Corinthians : 

Paul's Relationship to the Corinthian Church: 

1. A Missionary Visit from Paul on the Second 

Journey : 52-54 A. D. 

2. A Letter from Paul: (II Cor. 6:14-7:1, called 

Cor. A). 

3. A Letter from Corinth to Paul: (I Cor. 7:1). 

4. Paul's Reply: (I Corinthians, called Corinthians 

B). 

5. Paul's Sorrowful Visit: (II Cor. 13:1, 2; 2: 

1-14). 

6. The "Sorrowful Letter": (II Cor. 10-13, called 

Cor. C). 



150 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

7. The "Reconciliation Letter" : (II Cor. 1-9, called 

Cor. D). 

8. Paul's Third Visit to Corinth, where he spent 

the winter (Acts 20: 1-3), and wrote the Letter 
to the Romans. 

8. The Third Missionary Journey. — Resuming 
Paul's career near the end of the Second Journey, we 
find that Corinth marks the concluding city of the 
latter. He starts back to Antioch and Jerusalem ac- 
companied by Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18 : 18, 19), 
who leave him at Ephesus. This ends the Second 
Journey, which has hastily covered Asia, and has, 
with as much thoroughness as was possible under the 
circumstances, evangelized Achaia and Macedonia. 
The Third Journey is told from Acts 18: 23 to 21 : 16, 
and deals principally with Paul's three-year mission 
at Ephesus (Acts 20:31), where for the first time 
Christianity came into its first great historic conflict 
with money interests through the medium of the gor- 
geous Temple of Diana at Ephesus, one of the Seven 
Wonders of the World, the repository of many great 
works of sculpture, painting, and jewelry, the perfec- 
tion of Ionic architecture, the center of decadent 
heathen worship, and the object of pilgrimage by hun- 
dreds of thousands of pilgrims annually. The greatest 
attestation to the success of a man is the admission of 
his enemies that he is successful ; and this Paul volun- 
tarily received from the silversmith Demetrius (Acts 
19:26). At this time also it is interesting to note 
how the spotlight of the Book of Acts turns for a brief 
time upon the personality and labors of Apollos, a dis- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 151 

ciple of John the Baptist, whom we have noticed be- 
fore. Apollos was probably a primitive Christian who 
for some reason seems early to have left Palestine, 
and needed to be "brought up to date" on the doctrines 
of the Resurrection, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, 
and the mission of the Heavenly Christ as Paul con- 
ceived them. Priscilla and Aquila assisted in the proc- 
ess, and the final result was the turning of Apollos 
into a Christian of the approved Pauline pattern. From 
Ephesus during these three years Paul wrote some 
of his greatest letters. I Corinthians was written from 
Ephesus, and that the apostle lived in troublous times 
is evident not only from Acts, but from I Cor. 15: 32, 
and numerous other sidelights in the Corinthian liter- 
ature. Not only did Paul have a tremendous personal 
struggle at Ephesus, but here he wrote letters to the 
churches that were being undermined by Judaizers, 
whom we have noticed before in connection with the 
Council at Jerusalem. Of these anti-legalistic, or anti- 
Judaic, letters, Galatians is the most powerful, and 
must have been written from Ephesus. 

The Letter to the Galatians 

We have seen that Paul spent three years in Ephesus 
during the Third Missionary Journey, and that they 
were troublous times. I Corinthians was written from 
Ephesus, and indicates, as well as does II Corinthians, 
that he had been involved in a great personal struggle 
(I Cor. 15:32). The stay in Ephesus is notable not 
only for Paul's strenuous missionary endeavor, but for 
the letters written from there, not mentioned in Acts, 



152 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to churches which were being undermined by Judaiz- 
ers, especially Corinth and Galatia. Of these the latter 
is most typical. 

Galatians was written not to a congregation in a 
particular church, but to the several churches of the 
Galatian province. Bible scholars are divided over the 
identity of the name "Galatia." There is the North 
Galatian Theory and the South Galatian Theory. The 
former refers to the kingdom of Galatia proper, to the 
north part of the peninsula of Asia Minor. North 
Galatia was inhabited by Gauls (Galatia is a variation 
of "Gallia"), of the Julius Caesar type. By South 
Galatia is meant the country of Lystra, Derbe, Icon- 
ium, Antioch in Pisidia, etc., of the First Journe} 1 - In 
North Galatia were Ancyra (modern Angora), Pessi- 
nus, Tavium, etc. It is noteworthy that the author 
of Acts never mentions Galatia as such in describing 
the First Journey : he mentions Pisidia and Lycaonia 
(Acts 13-14). Therefore, the South Galatian Theory 
is held by scholars mainly of the traditional, conser- 
vative type, because of its sentimental contact with 
the Book of Acts. Most liberal progressive scholars 
maintain the North Galatian Theory. 

Acts 16: 6 .mentions a hasty trip on the Second 
Journey through Galatia, where Paul was overtaken 
by illness (Gal. 4:13). The language of Gal. 4:13 
indicates an accidental delay rather than a deliberate 
intention to evangelize Galatia, and the seeds of the 
gospel were sown during this illness. It is hardly 
credible that Paul would say, "Oh, you stupid Gala- 
tians" (Gal. 3: 1) to the Christians of Lystra, Iconium, 
Derbe, and Antioch in Pisidia. Zahn thinks Galatians 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 153 

was written from Corinth, and that it is the earliest 
letter of Paul's, but we have already seen that the 
weight of evidence for priority favors I Thessalonians. 
The Letter to the Galatians is marked by an ab- 
sence of cordial specific greetings common to the other 
letters of Paul. It is addressed simply to "the churches 
of Galatia" (Gal. 1:2). It is in diametrical contrast 
to the Letter to the Philippians in every respect. In 
the sixth verse of the first chapter, Paul, after a some- 
what formal salutation, plunges immediately into the 
problem to be dealt with. The English translation, 
"I marvel," would have been better translated, "I am 
thunderstruck" or "dumbfounded," for that is Paul's 
precise meaning. Surprise, astonishment, amazement 
is the tone of the introduction. Paul is amazed that 
the Galatian Christians are so soon proving disloyal 
after his preaching of the gospel there. The trouble is 
the same old problem presented at Antioch which 
caused the Council at Jerusalem to convene, and that 
created the unpleasant scene between Peter and Paul. 
The old reactionary gang has gotten busy again, raking 
over the dead embers of Paul's past life, ventilating 
his early record against the church, and whispering 
that the liberal Christianity of Paul is not the simon- 
pure brand, because Paul has repudiated the cere- 
monies of Judaism which Jesus himself had upheld 
by personal example, e. g. — circumcision. Paul, said 
they, had never come under the direct personal author- 
ity of Jesus like the Twelve; he was a "second-hand" 
apostle; once he was a persecutor, but now he had 
changed ; he had a two-faced gospel, preaching cir- 
cumcision to the Jews and uncircumcision to the Gen- 



154 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

tiles ; he was adopting "the easier way," which was 
wholly defective; he had "wound them around his 
little finger." On the other hand, said they, Jesus 
himself was a Jew, circumcised, ever subject to the 
Law; the Messianic hope was purely a Jewish hope; 
and the Twelve Apostles, originally called of Jesus, 
were the original authorities for the gospel, and they 
were conformists to the Law, while Paul was a non- 
conformist. The result was that Paul's stock began 
to decline. "Do," said they, "as did Jesus and the 
Twelve, and become the children of Abraham." To 
this last argument Paul replies in Galatians 3 and 4 
at considerable length, and with considerable skill 
in debate which had been developed in him by his 
Rabbinical training at the feet of Gamaliel. But the 
effect in its entirety of the Judaizers' arguments in 
Paul's Gentile churches, and particularly those of Gal- 
atia, was distressing to him in the extreme, for he 
saw his religion threatened with repudiation, and his 
churches being thrown into confusion and doubt. The 
Letter to the Galatians is a formal Declaration of In- 
dependence of Christianity from conformity to Jewish 
legalism and ceremonialism. It decided forever the 
now dead and obsolete issue of whether a Gentile 
Christian must become a member of the Jewish church 
before becoming a Christian, and it decided it in the 
negative. Paul's view has since become the world 
view. In this respect, the Letter is one of the world's 
greatest and most influential documents, ranking along 
with Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the American 
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the 
United States, and Luther's ninety-nine theses. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 155 
An Outline of Galatians 

For purposes of reading and analysis, the Letter to 
the Galatians may be somewhat accurately and conve- 
niently outlined as follows: 

Sec. 1— (Chapters 1 and 2). Paul vindicates his apos- 
tolic authority; he reviews his past career to 
prove that he is not a counterfeit, "second- 
hand" apostle. 
Sec. II— (Chapters 3:1 to 5:12): The real relation 
of the Christian to the Law (i.e., conforming 
to Jewish ceremonies) is discussed at some 
length and with masterly logic and skill. 
Sec. III. — (Chapters 5 : 13 to 6) : Paul appeals from 
the ceremonial bondage of the old Jewish law 
to a new principle of freedom in Christ, and 
demonstrates its application. 

\ 
Discussion of Section I 

The negatives of Galatians 1 and 2 are very strong 
and are frequent in occurrence, which indicates the 
substance of his opponents' accusations. "You have 
heard, and apparently very recently," says Paul, in 
effect, "that I have a man-made, second-hand gospel 
(Gal. 1 : 7-12). This I deny; for it came to me through 
the revelation of Jesus Christ himself on that memor- 
able journey of mine to Damascus. Moreover, after 
that incident I retired from Damascus to Arabia with- 
out ever having met any of the Apostles (Gal. 1 : 16, 
17). Of course, they have told you again of my career 
as a persecutor (Gal. 1 : 13, 14). But after my return 



156 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

from Arabia, I never met Peter until three years had 
passed, and then I spent only a fortnight with him 
(Gal. i : 18). James was the only other Apostle whom 
I met (i : 19). I went later to Syria and Cilicia with- 
out ever having become acquainted personally with 
the Judean churches ; and as for the persecutions, — 
they by contrast only added to my prestige (Gal. 1 : 21- 
24). Before God, I am telling nothing but the truth 
(Gal. 1 : 20)." Paul then plunges directly into the prob- 
lem (2: 1-3), recounting the history of how this prob- 
lem had been thrashed out in the Council at Jerusa- 
lem (Acts 15-Gal. 2), for which see Section 6 of this 
text, preceding. Paul made a test-case of Titus, who 
was a Greek, carried the matter to the supreme court, 
into the very citadel of the enemy, a compromise agree- 
ment was reached and concurred in, and they shook 
hands upon it (Gal. 2: 9). Paul's view was the liberal, 
progressive view ; Jesus was the fulfilment of the Law ; 
and so the former declares decisively: "IF SALVA- 
TION COME BY THE LAW, THEN CHRIST 
DIED FOR NOUGHT" (Gal. 2:21). The Old Dis- 
pensation had lost its effectiveness and had passed 
away; the New had come to stay. 

Discussion of Section II 

"Oh, stupid (or senseless) Galatians" is more 
nearly a literal rendering of Gal. 3:1. Paul here an- 
swers the arguments of the Judaizers with regard to 
"becoming children of Abraham" before becoming 
Christians. He quotes the celebrated verse of Gene- 
sis 15:6: "Abraham had faith in God, and of this his 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 157 

righteousness consisted" (Gal. 3:6) to prove that by 
the spirit of faith, and not by physical ceremonies, a 
man's salvation and righteousness comes, turning his 
opponents' own ammunition back against them. The 
Old Testament had preached the gospel thus : "Cursed 
be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law 
to do them" (Deuteronomy 27:26). But since it is 
not possible to keep the whole Law, therefore any 
infringement thereof brings the law-breaker under the 
curse. Occasionally Paul drops his fluent, formal Rab- 
binical style, and speaks "man to man," as in Gal. 3 : 
15, but mainly he develops his thesis by the former 
method. The Law came 430 years after Abraham 
(3: 17): how could it displace or supersede the origi- 
nal covenant with Abraham that "the righteous man 
shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). The Law was 
a sort of secondary arrangement to keep us within 
bounds, the tutor, the "pedagogue" (and Paul here 
means literally a guider of footsteps, the conveyer who 
saw that the child did not play truant, and not the 
schoolmaster, until the coming of Christ (Gal. 3:25); 
but when the latter event occurred, the function of the 
guardian ceased. According to Paul, baptism is put- 
ting on the garment of Christ, so that we actually live 
within him ; and when we have done that we are actu- 
ally the legitimate heirs of Abraham (Gal. 3 : 27-29). 
Paul speaks of "bondage to the rudiments of the 
world," which is a stinging reference to superstitious 
awe for ceremonialism and external rites, whether of 
heathen cults or of the Jewish Law itself! "You 
observe days, and months, and times, and years," — 
externalities in religion! (Gal. 4:10). The slave- 



158 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

woman, Hagar, typifies Jerusalem in bondage (to the 
Law), the Law of Sinai, — the mother of slaves; the 
free woman is Jerusalem above, our mother, the mother 
of the free! (Gal. 4:22-31). Paul wonders who has 
upset the Galatians ! (Gal. 5 : 7-10). 

Discussion of Section III 

Paul concludes his argument proper by urging that 
if slavery is the state so greatly desired by the Gala- 
tions, let them be slaves to love. If one has the Chris- 
tian virtues, no law is needed to govern such a per- 
son (Gal. 5:23). To be sure missteps are made even 
by Christians, but it is easy for them to set themselves 
again aright (6: 1). Paul gives a very positive dem- 
onstration of conditions arising from servile bondage 
to a code of laws (5: 17-23), and of the emancipation 
from the same to be obtained in freedom in Christ 
(5 : 22-24). Galatians 5 : 12 is a fiery "parting shot" at 
his opponents. Gal. 6 : 17 may possibly refer, it is 
thought by some Bible students, to be the marks re- 
ferred to also in I Corinthians 15 : 32, if both are to be 
interpreted literally. 

Conclusion 

The fact that the Letter to the Galatians has sur- 
vived down to the present day shows that it must 
have been well received, and that it probably had the 
desired effect. The Galatians at all events did not 
tear it up in anger or shame and "throw it in the waste- 
basket." 

9. Paul Driven from Ephesus. — Not only is the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 159 

Letter to the Galatians probably written from Ephe- 
sus, but Paul also was having trouble with the church 
at Corinth. As we have seen, he had sent Titus to 
Corinth with a "Reconciliation Letter"; but while 
awaiting the return of Titus, he (Paul) was driven 
from Ephesus (II Cor. 2: 12; Acts 20: 1). Paul now 
winters at Corinth (Acts 20: 1-6), and starts back east 
via Macedonia and Philippi to avoid a plot of the Jews 
to assassinate him. At Corinth during this winter he 
writes the Letter to the Romans of his imminent jour- 
ney back to Jerusalem (Romans 15:25, 26). He tells 
the Roman church, which he has never seen, that he 
is going back to Jerusalem with an offering for the 
poor of that church (Gal. 2: 10; Romans 15:25, 26); 
and that he is very eager to visit Rome (Romans 1 : 8- 
15; 15:28-33). If he escapes detention or possible 
assassination in Jerusalem (15 : 31 ), he is going to make 
the trip to Rome and Spain, ever following his prin- 
ciple of building on virgin territory (15: 19, 20). The 
Letter to the Romans may be briefly outlined as fol- 
lows: 

Paul's Letter to the Romans 

Paul in Romans is writing to a church over which 
he has no authority, and therefore he feels free to dis- 
cuss as a related whole the principles of the gospel. 
Chapters 1-11 discuss in some detail theoretical Chris- 
tian principles, and 11-16 apply these principles to per- 
sonal conduct and the business of living. More specifi- 
cally, chapters 1-8 compare and relate Judaism and 
Christianity. Chapter 8 is a magnificent climax, and 
is possibly the greatest religious and doctrinal master- 



160 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

piece in the writing of the whole world. Romans 9, 
10, and 11 deal in some detail with the Jewish people 
and their religion, and are critical for Paul, for he has 
been an apostate to his own religion and to his own 
people. The splendid figure of the olive-tree as the 
symbol of the Israelitish religion on which the Gentiles 
are "grafted" (Rom. 11:16-36) is a masterly bit of 
Rabbinical logic in which Paul had been thoroughly 
trained at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). 

Paul's Note to Ephesus: (Romans 16) 

There are more personal greetings in Romans 16 
than in all the rest of Paul's letters put together, which 
has excited some wonder among Biblical scholars. 
He greets many friends already known to him in Ephe- 
sus, Asia, and Macedonia, who are intimate and dear. 
Romans 16 is certainly a note from Corinth to Ephesus. 
Paul seems to know quite well their personal circum- 
stances. Julicher says, "Otherwise, we must presup- 
pose a general migration from Ephesus to Rome." 
Such a conclusion would be, of course, palpably ab- 
surd. 

10. The Start Back to Jerusalem. — Apparently Gaius 
was Paul's host on this last sojourn in Corinth (Rom. 
16:23). The apostle seems at this time to have been 
living under high tension, with Jewish plots against 
him on every hand (Rom. 15:30-32). When at the 
Council of Jerusalem a division of territory was made 
and they shook hands upon it, it was suggested that 
Paul remember the poor of the Jerusalem church 
(Gal. 2:10; Rom. 15:25, 26; Acts 20:22 and 24:17), 
a vow which he now faithfully sets about to fulfil. He 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 161 

departs at last by sea from Philippi, and sails by Ephe- 
sus, where he tarries long enough to bid the elders 
of that church a final farewell. Acts 20 : 38 indicates 
that they never saw him again. Goodspeed says that 
Acts is the rise of the Greek mission, not the memoirs 
of Paul, and hence does not clumsily include an ac- 
count of Paul's death; but it betrays a knowledge of 
his death in chapters 20 and 21, in Paul's farewell ad- 
dresses and in the anguished attitude of his friends. 
Why does the author exploit this, — especially the fare- 
well address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus? The 
readers of Acts in the first century must have realized 
the import of these passages. Paul is unmistakably 
dead by the time the Book of Acts is written in com- 
pletion : all his dire prognostications to his friends are 
too true, else these addresses are grossly improper and 
must "fall flat" on the readers of the book. This is 
skilful craftsmanship in writing, and gives Acts a 
touching significance that a clumsy foot-note or con- 
clusion could not possibly do. Concerning the offer- 
ing for the poor of Jerusalem the Book of Acts seems 
to know little or nothing (Acts 24: 17). Bacon asks, 
"How was Paul's collection received?" or does Chris- 
tian modesty and courtesy simply forbid its extended 
mention ? 

11. Paul's Presence in Jerusalem Causes a Riot and 
His Arrest. — (Acts 21 : 17 to 23: 31). In late May or 
early June of 58 A. D. Paul arrived in Jerusalem with 
Luke, Mnason of Cyprus, who was the proprietor of 
certain lodgings in Jerusalem, Trophimus the Ephe- 
sian, and certain Christians of Caesarea (Acts 21: 15, 
16, 29), to attend the Feast of Pentecost. Recognized 



162 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

by certain Asiatic Jews with whom he had had to deal 
straightforwardly in the past, Paul was accused of 
taking a Gentile into the Jewish precincts of the tem- 
ple, and of subverting the Jewish law and religion 
(21:28, 29). A wild riot ensued in which Paul es- 
caped only by the timely intervention of Claudius 
Lysias, captain of the Roman garrison in the Tower 
of Antonia, and a band of soldiers. Paul made his 
identity known in Greek to the captain, and was given 
permission to speak to his fellow-countrymen, which 
he did in Hebrew. They listened until he spoke of 
his mission to the Gentiles, and then gave vent to their 
fury in the words of Acts 22 : 22. Paul invoked his 
Roman citizenship and was protected from imminent 
mob violence. Next morning he was taken before the 
Sanhedrin for examination, but the presence of the 
prisoner caused such an outburst again that Lysias was 
forced to hurry him away (Acts 23 : 10). Forty Jewish 
fanatics conspired under a curse, vowing neither to 
eat nor drink in the meantime, to murder Paul (23 : 
12-14), but this plot was frustrated by its discovery 
on the part of Paul's nephew (23 : 16). In a very prac- 
tical way Paul informed the captain (23: 17), who pre- 
pared seventy cavalrymen and two hundred light in- 
fantrymen (23 : 23) to escort Paul to safety at Caesarea, 
where Felix, a successor of Pontius Pilate, retained 
the customary headquarters of the Roman government 
in Palestine. All this was done by night, and Felix 
received his distinguished prisoner with interest and 
assurance. 

12. Paul a Prisoner at Caesarea. — (Acts 24, 25, 26). 

(a) The Trial Before Felix. — Felix conducted the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 163 

trial described in Acts 24. Note Paul's diplomatic man- 
ner of address (24: 10). The Jewish accusers failed 
to convince the governor that Paul had done anything 
for which they might receive and execute judgment 
upon him. Felix also hoped the Christians might 
bribe him to release Paul (24:26). Paul was re- 
quested by Felix and his wife Drusilla to explain 
Christianity to them, which he did with such effec- 
tiveness that Felix trembled and would hear only a 
little at a time (24:24, 25). Paul was not a confined 
prisoner, nor were his friends forbidden to visit or 
communicate with him (24:23). No doubt Paul may 
have longed to be free to revisit his churches, but the 
two years of enforced leisure gave him a much needed 
rest, and allowed him some time in which to crystal- 
lize his doctrines in the form of certain last Letters 
to various churches. 

(b) The Trial Before Festus. — After the two years 
under the protection of Felix, the latter was replaced 
by Porcius Festus. The Jews sought anew to get 
possession of the person of Paul. Festus began to 
vacillate in his decisions, and Paul, foreseeing the 
probable result, appealed promptly to the tribunal of 
Caesar (25:11). Before his departure he was ex- 
amined by Herod Agrippa, tetrarch of Galilee, and the 
latter's sister, Bernice, who came to pay Festus a com- 
plimentary visit (25: 13). In Acts 26 we have Paul's 
story of his life told in a most eloquent manner by 
the prisoner, again with such effect that it penetrated 
deeply into the mind of the king (26: 28). To Festus 
it seemed as if Paul were an educated fanatic (26: 24), 
though Paul replied to him in a very non-fanatical 



164 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

manner (26:25). To Agrippa's reproof, Paul very 
generously responded with the wish that everyone 
within his hearing were as he himself, with the excep- 
tion of being prisoners in chains (26:29). 

13. Paul's Voyage to Italy (Acts 2.7 to 28 : 16). — The 
narrative of Luke concerning the voyage to Italy is 
not only fascinating reading from the standpoint of 
adventure, but is also a priceless document concerning 
the ships and navigation of the ancient world. Festus 
delivered Paul into the charge of Julius, a courteous 
and liberal centurion (Acts 27: 1, 3), who put him on 
a boat of Alexandria sailing for Italy (27 : 6), together 
with Luke and Aristarchus, the Thessalonican disci- 
ple (27:2), who probably posed as Paul's servants in 
order to be able to accompany him. None of the com- 
pany aboard this ship intended or expected to land at 
Crete or Malta (Melita, in Latin) when they embarked; 
and the fact that the captain disregarded Paul's ad- 
vice against sailing from Fair Havens, Crete (27 : 8-10), 
led to the shipwreck at Malta (28:1). After three 
months' delay (28: 11), the last lap of the voyage was 
safely made, by way of Syracuse, noted for its "Ear of 
Dionysius," its Fountain of Arethusa, and its having 
been the home of Archimedes, the scientist and mathe- 
matician, inventor of the burning-glass, and discoverer 
of the principles of the lever and of specific gravity; 
Rhegium, or Reggio, where Scylla and Charybdis, the 
rock and the whirlpool, are located; Puteoli, the mod- 
ern city of Naples ; and up the Appian Way past the 
Three Taverns, where Paul and his company were re- 
ceived by a delegation of Christians (28: 15), through 
the Capuan Gate into the Eternal City. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 165 

14. Paul in Rome. — When St. Paul entered Rome 
over the very same road on which Pompey and Caesar 
and many other Roman military heroes had passed in 
gorgeous triumph, he looked little like the man des- 
tined to overcome by his influence the City of the 
Seven Hills. No chariot carried his weary body ; no 
vast equipage of followers trailed in his wake ; stained 
with travel afoot, escaped from shipwreck, gray-haired 
and broken in body, an iron chain bound to one arm, 
yet he passed beneath the Porta Capena the greatest 
victor who had ever graced the precincts of Rome with 
his presence, before or since. Paul was confined to 
his own hired house, accompanied always by a soldier 
who guarded him, where he may have indicted a few 
of his letters, and for two years taught the Gospel 
without interference, while awaiting trial before the 
bar of Nero (Acts 28:30, 31). He occupied himself 
busily in many other ways : probably he converted 
some of the soldiers who guarded him, and who, ac- 
customed to brutality and excess in all forms under 
their wicked emperor, could not fail to be impressed 
by such a life as his. 

At this point he disappears from history. Probably 
he was never a free man again. Possibly he was put 
to death in the Neronian persecution of 64 A. D. It 
is noticeable how very abruptly the Book of Acts ends. 
Is there a lost sequel? Is it left not "brought up to 
date" by the author at the end of Acts 28? Does he, 
as Goodspeed suggests, stop, fearing an anticlimax, 
and preferring to continue his treatment of Paul's 
life so as to end with a note of triumph and joy? Are 
the famous Prison Epistles written from Rome? These 



166 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

are pertinent and suggestive questions. Some of them 
must remain unanswered probably until the end of 
time. Tradition tells us that St. Paul was beheaded 
outside the city walls of Rome, near the tomb of Caius 
Cestius, and that he was buried under what is now 
the site of the magnificent Cathedral of St. Paul With- 
out the Walls. The distinguished Italian archaeolo- 
gist, Rudolfo Lanciari, tells us that on December I, 
1891, he located the tomb of Paul under the crypt of 
this church, and that there was a slab labelled : "Paolo 
Apostolo Mart," — Paul, the Apostle and Marytr. 1 
Colossians-Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians are 
so-called "Prison Epistles." It remains for us to dis- 
cuss them briefly. 

The Colossians-Ephesians Problem 

The Colossians-Ephesians Problem involves pri- 
marily the question of the authorship of these letters. 
A careful comparative reading of the two will reveal 
the fact that Ephesians often repeats or resembles ten 
words at a time numerous passages in Colossians. For 
example, let the reader read Colossians 3 : 18-25, and 
then verse at a time compare it with Ephesians 5 : 22, 
25, and 6: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Further comparison will 
reveal that, 

Colossians 2:8 = Ephesians 5 : 6. 

Colossians 3 : 5, 8 = Ephesians 5 : 3, 4. 

Colossians 3 : 16, 17= Ephesians 5 : 19, 20. 

In other words, using a compound proportion, Ephe- 
sians is to Colossians as II Thessalonians is to I Thes- 

1 See "In the Footsteps of St. Paul," by Francis E. Clark, 
D.D., LL.D. (Putnam, 1917), pp. 397-399. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 167 

salonians. Ephesians is a reflex of Colossians. If 
Colossians is of Paul's writing, then Ephesians is 
pseudo-Pauline in all probability. We shall discuss 
this further presently. 

I. Paul's Letter to the Colossians 

In reading the discussion on Colossians, the reader 
should read to parallel it the material on Paul's Letter 
to Philemon, the latter being a wealthy resident of 
Colossae, and a Christian of Paul's conversion. Colos- 
sae is a town of Phrygia in Asia Minor, in the valley 
of the river Lycus, 165 miles east of Ephesus, the 
nearest metropolis. Paul has never been there (Col. 
1 : 4 and 2:1). At the time of writing he is in prison 
(see our discussion of the Letter to Philemon), and this 
is one of the famous prison epistles. One of his de- 
tention companions is Epaphras, of Colossae (Col. 
1:6-8). Paul sends the Letter to the Colossians by 
Tychicus, an Ephesian (Acts 20:4; 21:29; Col. 4:7 
on), and also sends with the latter Onesimus, a run- 
away slave (Col. 5:7-9; Philemon 10). 

The subject-matter of the Letter to the Colossians 
is meant to be an antidote to an old heresy which in 
some form Paul had fought all his life, and which 
now had resumed its attack on Colossae. Some of the 
elements of this heresy, which is not so clearly defined 
as it is in the Letter to the Galatians, are : 

1. Asceticism: 2: 16. 

2. Judaism: 2: 11. 

3. False Philosophy: 2:8 and 20 ("rudiments" 
meaning rules of form and externality, rather than 
rules of spirit). Paul is unusually "cosmic" (imper- 



1 68 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

sonal, universal in his discussion of Christian prin- 
ciples) in this letter, — something that he tends to avoid 
in the other letters which we know to be from his 
hand. This is particularly noticeable in Col. i and 
2 : 9, 10. It is further shown from the fact that Col. 
1:3-8; 9-18; 21-29; an d 2:8-12, 13-15, are all single, 
breathless, labored sentences. Col. 1:15-20 is "cos- 
mic" and not characteristically Pauline, but on the 
other hand Col. 1 : 1-14 is distinctly Pauline. Col. 2: 9, 
10 and 17-19 are not typically Pauline. Therefore, 
some scholars reject Colossians as not of Paul's au- 
thorship, but this is a radical view. Some take a com- 
promise view, such as Von Soden and Holtzmann, who 
believe it to be of Pauline authorship, but that Col. 
1 and 2 may not have been handed down without re- 
vision and re-editing to make it apply to the later 
doctrinal needs of the church. The letter as a whole 
seems to be clearly Pauline. 

II. The Letter to the Ephesians 

The Letter to the Ephesians is almost totally "cos- 
mic." It reads more like a catholic, pseudo-Pauline 
letter. There is no note of personal reference after 
Paul had lived there for over three years (Acts 20: 
31). Certainly this is not a characteristic of the Apos- 
tle Paul, who never forgot to mention his friends in- 
dividually or collectively, or both, in his letters to his 
churches. Ephesians 1:15 and 3:2 casually remark 
that the author "has heard" of the faith of the Ephe- 
sians ! Would Paul write like this to people whom he 
had long known? The author, with Colossians lying 
before him as he writes, in this respect has adopted the 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 169 

language of Colossians 1:4. Or is Ephesians a letter 
making the rounds of a circuit, as McGiffert, Zahn, and 
many other New Testament scholars believe? (The 
"Circular Letter Theory," mentioned in Col. 4:16, 
which Paul used to keep news of his welfare and es- 
tate in circulation for the benefit of the churches). Or 
is Ephesians a post-Pauline letter, a catholic, or gen- 
eral letter, as Coleridge asserts in his "Table Talk"? 

We have already noted the curious resemblance be- 
tween Ephesians and Colossians, which leads us to 
think that the former simply mirrors the latter, with- 
out the warmth and affectionate eagerness of the per- 
sonality of Paul. Furthermore, does Paul ever speak 
of himself, once a persecutor of the church, as "holy"? 
(Eph. 3:5). He indicates rather the opposite in I 
Corinthians (Cor. B) 15:9. In I Cor. (B) 3: 11, Paul 
can conceive of Christ as the only foundation of the 
church of God, while Eph. 2 : 20 asserts that the apos- 
tles and prophets constitute the foundations ! 

As we have noted, Colossians contains some remark- 
ably long sentences, but Ephesians outstrips the for- 
mer in this respect. Ephesians 1:3-14 and 15-23; 2: 
1-9; and 3: 1-17 are, in the Greek of the original, all 
single sentences. Norden, a German scholar, who is 
the world's greatest living authority on Greek prose, 
says that "Ephesians 1 : 3-14 is the most monstrous 
"conglomeration of clauses" he has "ever seen in the 
whole range of the Greek language." He also calls 
attention to the fact that there are forty-four Greek 
words in Ephesians not found elsewhere in all of Paul's 
writings. Julicher is undetermined as to its author- 
ship, but Moffatt, von Soden, etc., declare it to be un- 



170 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

deniably pseudo-Pauline. If Paul wrote it, its pecu- 
liarities must be added to our estimate of Paul. If not, 
it must be considered a pseudonymous epistle, writ- 
ten using Colossians as a model and pattern, to meet 
the needs of the post-Pauline church at Ephesus and 
elsewhere. Bacon simply welds the two letters into 
a compound name when speaking of the problem of 
their origins : Colossians-Ephesians. Certainly, the 
two letters should be studied side by side. 

Paul's Letter to Philemon 

The Letter of Paul to Philemon is a beautiful model 
of a delicate and tactful letter to a friend. Philemon 
was a resident of Colossae in Phrygia (compare Col. 
4:9 with Philemon 11). He had been converted by 
Paul (Philemon 19) possibly at Ephesus during Paul's 
three years' stay in that city (Acts 19). A man of 
wealth given to charity (vv. 5-7), a Christian propa- 
gandist (v. 1 ), using his own home as a meeting-house 
for his religion (v. 2), he apparently was a distin- 
guished friend and follower of Paul. Charles Kings- 
ley said of this epistle : "It is the most civil, kindly, 
gentleman-like speech I know of on earth." 

Onesimus (Col. 4:9; Philemon 10), a runaway slave 
of Philemon's, is the subject of the letter. Usually 
runaway slaves were tortured to death or perhaps 
crucified as an example of their fellow-bondsmen. One- 
simus took chances in going back, for slaves were 
regarded in ancient times by their masters as merely 
utensils, not human beings. Varro, a Roman histor- 
ian, classified agricultural implements into three 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 171 

groups: (1) Inarticulate, such as wagons and carts 
and plows: (2) semi-articulate, such as oxen and other 
beasts of burden, and (3) articulate, or human slaves. 
The contempt of Cicero for slaves gives an insight 
into the ancient attitude. Onesimus did not have to 
return. He might have given Tychicus the slip (Col. 
4:7-9). He returned, of course, to be a slave. Paul, 
being a child of his own times, did not suggest his 
emancipation, but naturally accepts the institution of 
slavery without criticism. Paul elsewhere, however, 
does recognize a sphere of life in which there is neither 
bond nor free, and lays down far in advance of his 
own time the fundamental principle of democracy 
(Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:28; I Cor. 7:20-24). 

Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon are the fa- 
mous "Prison Epistles" of Paul. Were the prison epis- 
tles written from prison in Caesarea, Rome, or Ephe- 
sus? Lisco's theory is that Paul probably wrote them 
from Ephesus, and he is supported in this by Deiss- 
mann, Lake, Bacon, Robinson, Goguel; and other 
scholars. The style and mood fit the Ephesian period. 
The "household of Caesar" (Philippians 4:22) simply 
means the personnel of the imperial establishment (of 
the Roman governor). Colossae is 950 miles from 
Rome as the crow flies, and 1200 by the regular route 
by sea. It is a church Paul has never seen (Col. 1 : 4). 
Paul asks Philemon to receive Onesimus, who has 
run away, but did Onesimus "run away" 1200 miles? 
It would be as if Onesimus lived in St. Louis and ran 
away to London. Ephesus is the nearest metropolis 
to Colossae. It may be quite probable that Ephesus 
is the source of the prison epistles. 



172 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
Paul's Letter to the Philippians 

The most recent scholarship has tended to view 
Paul's Letter to the Philippians as the third and last 
of the Prison Epistles, and as probably the last letter 
that Paul ever wrote. On the whole Philippians is a 
very clear and unquestionable Pauline document. It 
is the most warm, cordial, and affectionate of all his 
letters. Paul, it will be recalled, founded this church 
on the Second Journey, and he made an exception of 
accepting gifts of money from it, twice at Thessa- 
lonica, once at Corinth, and he has just received an- 
other in prison which was brought by Epaphroditus 
(Philippians 2:25-30; 4: 15-19). Paul has been ill in 
prison (2: 26, 27); he will send Timothy to them with 
news of the outcome of his trial (2:19-23); but he 
trusts that he himself will be released to make the 
trip (2:24). "Paul, smiling through his tears, writes 
the letter to the Philippians," says Bacon. He puts 
the best face on the whole matter. The whole tone is 
that of farewell, but its keynote is joy and rejoicing. 
The smiles and tears of Philippians are especially note- 
worthy (2:2; 3: 18). So is the loving tribute of the 
apostle to his beloved companion, the youthful Tim- 
othy (2:19-23). The authenticity of Philippians is 
well established. Although "bishops" are mentioned 
for the first time in 1 : 1, the sudden turn of 3 : 2 against 
the Judaizers has a familiar ring. If Philippians is 
Paul's last epistle, it is a fitting conclusion to the life 
of one of the most remarkable and wonderful men 
whom the world has ever known. 



PART III: APPENDIX A. EXPRESSIONS ST. 
PAUL HAS MADE PROVERBIAL 

"Against hope believed in hope": Romans 4: 18. 

"The wages of sin is death": Romans 6: 23. 

"The potter and the clay": Romans 9:21. 

"Given to hospitality" : Romans 12 : 13. 

"Be not wise in your own conceit": Romans 12: 16. 

"Heaping coals of fire on his head": Romans 12: 20. 

"Confounding the mighty" : I Corinthians 1 : 27. 

"I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the 

increase" : I Cor. 3 : 6. 
"Absent in body, but present in spirit" : I Cor. 5 : 3. 
"All things to all men" : I Cor. 9 : 12. 
"Take heed lest he fall": I Cor. 10: 12. 
"Sounding brass and tinkling cymbal" : I Cor. 13:1. 
"Not puffed up" : I Cor. 13:4. 

"When I was a child, I spake as a child" : I Cor. 13 : 11. 
"Now we see through a glass, darkly": I Cor. 13: 12. 
"If the trumpet give an uncertain sound" : I Cor. 14 : 8. 
"Of the earth, earthy": I Cor. 15:47. 
"In the twinkling of an eye": I Cor. 15 : 52. 
"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" : II Cor. 

3:6. 
"Plainness of speech": II Cor. 3: 12. 
"Rude in speech": II Cor. 11:6. 
"A thorn in the flesh": II Cor. 12:7. 
- 173 



174 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"Right hand of fellowship" : Galatians 2 : 9. 

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap": 
Galatians 6: 7. 

"Passeth all understanding" : Philippians 4 : 7. 

"In whatsoever state I am, to be content": Philip- 
pians 4: 11. 

"Touch not; taste not; handle not": Colossians 2:21. 

"Labour of love" : I Thessalonians 1 : 3. 

"Hold fast to that which is good" : I Thess. 5 : 21. 

"If God be for us, who can be against us?": Romans 

8:31. 
"No man liveth or dieth to himself alone" : Rom. 14: 7. 
"Abhor that which is evil": Rom. 12:9. 
"Render tribute to whom tribute is due" : Rom. 13 : 7. 
"Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost" : I Cor. 

6: 19. 
"Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up" : I Cor. 

8:1. 
"Temperate in all things" : I Cor. 9 : 25. 
"Quit yourselves like men": I Cor. 16: 13. 
"Power matures in weakness" : II Cor. 12 : 9. 
"I live, yet not I, but Christ in me" : Gal. 2 : 20. 
"I press toward the mark" : Phil. 3 : 14. 
"Whatsoever things are true . . . lovely," etc. : Phil. 

4:8. 
"Set your affections on things above" : Col. 3 : 2. 
"Abstain from all appearance of evil" : I Thess. 5 : 22. 
"Loss of all things, and do count them but dung": 

Phil. 3 : 8. 
"I have fought the good fight" : II Tim. 4 : 7. 



PART IV 
THE GENERAL OR UNIVERSAL LETTERS 



PART IV 
THE GENERAL OR UNIVERSAL LETTERS 



I. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES: I AND II 
TIMOTHY AND TITUS 

Even a majority of conservative scholars do not now 
attribute First and Second Timothy and Titus, in their 
present form, at least, to Paul. Let us examine the 
reasons for this from evidence both internal and ex- 
ternal, as we would go about fixing, for instance, the 
date of any given Shakespearean play. 

I. Internal Evidence: 

i. Paul, if he wrote these letters, wrote as to 
strangers (I Tim. 2:7; 4:12-16; II Tim. 1:6-8; 
2:21-22). Fci Paul's real opinion of Timothy, 
warm, personal, and affectionate, read Philippians 
2 : 19-22. 

2. The author warns his correspondents against 
the most elementary vices. Timothy and Titus 
are treated as though their character might be a 
matter of doubt. Evidently, then, the letters are 
catholic, that is, general, universal, addressed in 
this instance to all young ministers. In fact, sev- 
eral passages in the Pastoral Epistles (so-called 
from the Latin "pastor," a shepherd or minister) 
177 



178 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

are used by various churches in the ordination 
services of young ministers. 

3. There are, in the Greek, seventy-four words 
in I Timothy, forty-six in II Timothy, and twenty- 
eight in Titus, never found elsewhere in Paul's 
letters. 

4. Paul wrote inspired letters. The Pastoral 
Epistles compared to his are uninspired. They 
deal in a common-place, prosaic fashion with or- 
thodoxy and "sound doctrine." The latter phrase 
is used repeatedly. 

5. There is no reference to Paulinism or Paul- 
ine doctrines; no "justification," no "old man and 
new man," no passion, fire, genius, or mysticism. 
The word "piety" occurs eleven times in Greek 
and four times in its cognate Greek derivations. 

6. The Pastorals deal with church ordination. 

7. The personal references do not fit in with 
Paul's life as we know it (II Timothy 1:8; 1 : 16- 
18; 4:6; 4:12; Titus 3:12). These things hap- 
pened long before the writing of the pastorals. 
Timothy was along: and Trophimus (Acts 21 : 29) 
went up to Jerusalem with Paul and was the inno- 
cent cause of his troubles and arrest. 

II. External Evidence: 

1. One theory held to explain the Pauline bio- 
graphical allusions in the Pastorals is that there 
was a Fourth Missionary Journey of Paul to Cor- 
inth, Miletus, Troas, etc., not recorded in Acts or 
elsewhere. But one assumes the Pastorals to be 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 179 

genuinely Pauline for this, and all internal evi- 
dence is overwhelmingly against it. All the evi- 
dence of the church fathers Clement, Origen, 
Jerome, etc., refers to the death of Paul after his 
first imprisonment. In Acts 20, Paul says his 
final good-bye to the Ephesian elders with tears. 
Burton, Goodspeed, Bowen, and others assume 
this to be Luke's way of breaking the news that 
Paul was dead at the time of the writing of Acts, 
a much more artistic way of doing so than by 
tacking on a postscript labelled : "Poor Paul is 
dead." Matthew does the same thing with re- 
gard to announcing the deaths of James and John 
(Matthew 20:20-23). 

2. Paul says in his last writings that he intends 
to go from Rome to Spain (Romans 15:28), that 
he is done with the East forever (Romans 15:23, 
24). Evangelizing virgin soil was Paul's mis- 
sionary principle. Had he been released from his 
first imprisonment, he would have gone to Spain, 
not back to Corinth, Miletus, Troas, and the rest. 

Many scholars believe the Pastorals to contain in- 
serted Pauline fragments: (II Timothy 1:15-18 and 
4: 9-22 ; Titus 3 : 9-23), just as Ephesians quotes Colos- 
sians often ten words at a time. 

II. THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS 

Until recently the traditionalists and conservatives 
stoutly maintained that Paul wrote the Letter to the 
Hebrews, but this theory is gradually being dispelled 



180 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

by a calm and impartial view of the document based 
upon continued modern research. The document it- 
self apparently has no idea of being a letter until 
chapter 13, verse 22. It begins like a sermon or hom- 
ily. It is not addressed to either Jews or Jewish Chris- 
tians, but probably to the "spiritual Israel," which 
would include Gentiles as well. 

By the end of the first century, this document is 
well-known, though not included in Marcion's Canon. 
Origen says, "God only knows who wrote it." Clem- 
ent and Jerome say that it does not matter who wrote 
it: it is orthodox. Luther remarks: "Probably Apol- 
los wrote it." Calvin thinks that Clement or Luke 
wrote it. Harnack caused quite a stir some years ago 
by alleging it to have been written by a woman, pos- 
sibly Priscilla, a view with which Peake sympathizes. 
Unfortunately the expression "If I were to relate" 
(Heb. 11 : 32) in the Greek has a masculine participle, 
which explodes this conception. The author of this 
homily, whoever he may be, is the best stylist of the 
New Testament. 

Hebrews is a sermon or homily given an epistolary 
'turn near the last to gain attention as this form of 
writing seemed particularly able to do in that day. 
Apparently it is designed to arouse new ardor and 
enthusiasm by holding Christianity above all other 
faiths, especially Judaism, its rival and mother. It is 
hortatory in tone and expression, and for literary 
beauty exceeds in style all other documents of the New 
Testament. 

In reading the letter one should note especially chap- 
ter 9, which defines in some detail the meaning and 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 181 

origin of the phrase, "The New Testament" ; and chap- 
ter n, often called "The Roll-Call of the Old Testa- 
ment," and "Heroes of Faith." Hebrews n again 
demonstrates to us WHY the New Testament was 
written, as well as the Old, because the authors were 
"inspired," by which we mean that they were under 
the spell of an overpowering religious conviction which 
they wished to communicate to other people. 

III. THE LETTER OF JAMES 

In the Greek version this letter is entitled JACOB 
instead of James. In English literature the adjective 
"Jacobean" is often applied to the reign of James I of 
England, the era immediately succeeding the Eliza- 
bethan, because of the etymological association of the 
names Jacob and James. The writer of this document 
does not reveal his identity, and the name given it is 
exceedingly common. It is not epistolary except for 
the first verse of the first chapter. It begins like a 
letter, whereas Hebrews, as we have seen, ends like a 
letter. 

This document is exceedingly valuable, although the 
name of Jesus is only twice mentioned (i : i ; 2: i). It 
is practical, sane, common sense, and wholesome. It 
is a collection of aphorisms after the principle of the 
Book of Proverbs. James would have us rightly re- 
spect and esteem the poor as well as the rich. The 
celebrated chapter 3, on bridling an unruly tongue, is 
one of the world's great literary and ethical master- 
pieces. James' definition of religion (1:27), and his 
comment on the briefness of human life (4: 14) are 



182 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

often quoted. Theologians have made much in times 
gone by of the apparent controversy of James with 
Paulinism (James 2), or works as against faith alone, 
which led Luther to become hostile to this document. 
"An epistle of straw," as he calls it. 

Like Hebrews, James is a homily, and therefore 
horatatory in tone and form. Julicher counted and 
found fifty-four imperative verbs to the total of one 
hundred and eight verses of James. 

IV. THE FIRST LETTER OF PETER 

The First Letter of Peter is a striking example of 
the style and spirit of Paul. It is addressed to Paul's 
churches (1 : 1). The un-Pauline things about it are: 
(1) It presupposes a persecution (1:7); and (2) the 
author calls himself an elder (5:1). The moral ex- 
hortations are strikingly after the manner and lan- 
guage of Paul; and Romans 12 and 13 are embodied 
in I Peter. For example: 

I Peter 3:8 = Romans 12 : 16. 

I Peter 3:9 — Romans 12 : 17. 

I Peter 3:11 — Romans 12 : 18. 

Also, I Peter 2: 13-17 is re-embodied in Romans 13: 
1-7. A careful reading of I Peter 1 and 2 parallel with 
Romans 12 and 13 will further emphasize the very 
remarkable similarity. 

It is supposed that the "Babylon" referred to in 5 : 13 
of this epistle is understood to mean Rome. The fiery 
trials and the exhortations to remain constant likely 
refer to the persecution of Domitian over Asia Minor 
in the 90's, or to that of Trajan, shortly after 100. It 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 183 

therefore is probably a pseudo-Petrine document, be- 
cause Peter was now dead, and he knew no Greek, 
oral or written. Verse 1 of chapter 1 was added not 
only to address the churches of Asia, but probably also 
to give the letter a status in the canon. 

V. THE SECOND LETTER OF PETER 

The Second Letter of Peter is a revised edition of 
Jude, just as Ephesians is of Colossians, and I Peter 
of Romans 12 and 13. The author writes a prefix 
(chapter 1) to his re-edition of Jude and adds an ap- 
pendix (chapter 3). Comparative readings of II Peter 
and Jude will reveal what Harnack calls "a forgery" 
and "sailing under false pretences" but Bacon reminds 
us that "neither plagiarism nor pseudonymity were 
recognized offences at the time ; so that we can bring 
no indictment against II Peter were he the apostle or 
not." 

A comparison of II Peter and Jude will be illuminat- 
ing to the reader, and will reveal among other things 
the following: 

II Peter 2:1 = Jude 4. 

II Peter 2: 4 = Jude 6. 

II Peter 2: 6 = Jude 7. 

II Peter 2:7 = Jude 8. 

II Peter 2: 11 == Jude 9. 

II Peter 2:12 = Jude 10. 

II Peter 2:13 = Jude 12. 

II Peter 2 : 17 — Jude 13. 

II Peter 2:18 = Jude 16. 

The date of the writing of this document has never 



184 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

been fixed with general satisfaction. 150 A. D. is a 
fair estimate. Certainly the letter is never heard of in 
the second century, and the Council at Laodicea, 372 
A. D., is the first historic evidence of its appearance 
in the canon. 

The theme of the letter is the delay of the Second 
Coming of Jesus. Mark 13 : 30 had promised from the 
lips of Jesus himself : "Verily I say unto you, that this 
generation shall not pass, till all these things (the 
Second Coming of the Son of Man with the angels) 
be done." As the years passed on, however, a re- 
vision of opinion became necessary, and in the late 
documents of the New Testament there is a pathetic 
and conscious effort to bolster up the faith of the Chris- 
tians of the second century with regard to the expected 
Parousia. It is evident in II Peter 3:4: "And saying, 
Where is the promise of his coming? for since the 
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the creation." There is no doubt 
that at the time this document was written, the eager 
expectation of the Second Coming was on the wane, 
and primitive people with primitive instincts to re- 
strain, tended to relax and become decadent, as many 
Christians in the modern world tend to do. The Doke- 
tists were particularly active and radical in repudiating 
the Advent in its supernatural aspect. They were 
looked upon as the religious Bolshevists of their day. 
Against them the second chapter of II Peter is directed 
in the language used originally by Jude. In reading 
this epistle the following curious verses also should be 
noted : 2 : 22 ; 3 : 10; and 3 : 15, 16, which refer to Paul's 
letters. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 185 

VI. THE JOHANNINE EPISTLES: I, II, AND III 
JOHN 

All the Johannine literature, which includes the three 
letters of John and the Fourth Gospel, is written from 
a peculiar point of view. They approach Christianity 
from a certain mystic, supernatural, and theological 
standpoint that makes them individual and unique, just 
as the enthusiasm, affection, and personal tone of the 
Pauline letters make them individual, unique, and in- 
imitable as a group of writings. 

I John has no epistolary salutation, but it frequently 
contains the word "write." A number of verses of I 
John are re-incorporated in the Fourth Gospel, as are 
practically all of its ideas. I John 1 contains many of 
the ideas of John 1. I John 4: 12 is repeated in John 
1 : 18. I John 4 amplifies in great detail what Jesus 
told the Woman of Samaria in John 4 : 24, namely, that 
"God is Spirit" (usually translated "a Spirit," for which 
there is no justification in the Greek of the original). 
We note again a certain willingness of this author (or 
group of authors: John 21:24) to bandy about with 
great freedom of application the words "thief" and 
"liar" (John 12:6; I John 2:22; 4:20). The expres- 
sion "Little children" occurs frequently (John 13 : 33 ; 
I John 2:1; 2:12; 2:13; 2 : 28 ; 3:7; 3:18; 4:4; and 
5:21). I John should be read in its entirety. Upon 
this letter Tolstoy bases his celebrated story, "What 
Men Live By," which is the best commentary on it 
that one could possibly read. I John 3: 15 interprets 
perfectly what Jesus meant in Matthew 5 : 21 and 22. 

II John was written by the elder (1:1) to the lady 



1 86 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

and her children. Ill John was written to "the well- 
beloved Gains" (i : i). 

If the student of the New Testament will recall how 
common the name John was in ancient as well as in 
modern times, and will recall in his New Testament 
reading mention of John the Baptist, John the Apostle, 
John Mark, John the Elder, and the John of Revela- 
tion, he will at once perceive why there has been so 
much confusion in identifying the authors of the vari- 
ous Johannine documents and why so much doubt and 
uncertainty has existed with respect to this problem. 

VII. THE LETTER OF JUDE 

Jude is an ugly corruption of the name Judas, be- 
cause of the association, inevitable in New Testament 
times, with the name of Judas Iscariot. Jude is seldom 
read nowadays, few texts are taken from it, and relig- 
ious life now is not nourished to any extent by it. It 
is not "well-thumbed" or "wet with tears" like other 
more familiar and oft-quoted and remembered pages of 
the second great division of the Bible. Verse 9 is 
quoted from the apocryphal book of "The Assumption 
of Moses," and verses 14, 15 and "The Book of Enoch." 
Jude contains some passages of marked vigor and 
beauty of expression (verses 12, 13), and has a mag- 
nificent benediction which survives in modern relig- 
ious expression (verses 24, 25). The author of the 
second Petrine letter thought enough of this docu- 
ment to incorporate it as the body of his message. That 
the letter was doubtless written at a late date is almost 
consciously evident in verse 3 : "the faith which was 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 187 

ONCE delivered to the saints." The traditional view 
of this letter is that Jude was the brother of Jesus 
(verse 1). 

The tone of this document is forbidding in the ex- 
treme. Verses 3 : 19 are evidently aimed at heretical 
Doketists and Antinomians, members of Gnostic sects 
who repudiated the historical Jesus, and stamped his 
career as a phantasm (dokesis). A fuller discussion 
of this is given, it will be recalled, in our consideration 
of the composition and content of the Fourth Gospel. 

VIII. THE HISTORICAL GROUPING OF THE 
NEW TESTAMENT DOCUMENTS 

In our discussion of the New Testament documents 
considered as separate members of a loosely unified 
collection, by the time-honored practice of "reading 
between the lines," it can be perceived that they group 
themselves around four significant events in the his- 
tory of Christianity. These are, with the documentary 
grouping, as follows : 

I. The Fall of Jerusalem (70 A. D.) : 

1. Mark. 

2. Matthew. 

II. Domitian's Persecutions (81-96 A. D.): 

1. Revelation. 

2. II Peter. 

III. The Rise of the Greek Mission : 

1. Luke. 

2. Acts. 

3. Thessalonians A. 

4. Galatians. 



188 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 



IV. 



5- 


Corinthians A. 




6. 


Corinthians B. 




7- 


Corinthians C. 




8. 


Corinthians D. 




9- 


Romans, minus chapter 16. 




10. 


A Note to Ephesus (Romans 16). 


ii. 


Colossians. 




12. 


Philemon. 




13- 


Philippians. 




14. 


Fragments of II Timothy- 
Titus. 


(B) and 


IS- 


Hebrews. 




16. 


Thessalonians B. 




i7- 


Ephesians. 




18. 


James. 




The Rise of the Heretical Sects, and of Do- 


ketism : 




1. 


I Timothy (A). 




2. 


II Timothy (B). 




3- 


Titus. 




4- 


Jude. 




5- 


I Peter. 




6. 


I John. 




7- 


II John. 




8. 


Ill John. 




9- 


The Fourth Gospel. 





PART V 
THE BOOK OF REVELATION 



PART V 

THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

We have seen that the New Testament documents 
fall naturally into four groups in the historical order 
of their appearance: (i) The Pauline Literature, 
grouped around the rise of the Greek mission ; (2) The 
Early Gospels, grouped around the fall of Jerusalem 
in 70 A. D.; (3) Hebrews, I Peter, and Revelation, 
grouped around Domitian's persecution of about 95 
A. D. ; and (4) The Johannine Literature and General 
Letters, grouped around the rise of the sects and of 
heresy. It is to the third division that Revelation be- 
longs. This document sets itself resolutely against 
the emperor-worship introduced into the Roman Em- 
pire by Domitian upon his accession to the throne, in 
order to unify the empire. Coins and monuments were 
ordered inscribed in Latin with "deified Vespasian" 
and "deified Domitian" ; definite salutation of the em- 
peror's image in its shrine became the custom ; and 
later incense burned before it came to be demanded 
of all Roman subjects. The idea, originating when the 
Oriental provinces of Rome had hailed Augustus as a 
god, overwhelmed the first century Christian with hor- 
ror and repugnance. There can be no doubt but that 
191 



192 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

the practice of emperor-worship is meant by the 
"worship of the Beast" and of the "image of the Beast" 
in Revelation 13, 14, and 19. Today a practical man 
of the twentieth century might regard it as purely a 
form, make mental reservations, and not necessarily 
predicate divinity with the Roman emperor ; but the 
naive, artless Christians of the early Church could not 
acquiesce thus. The great note of Revelation is that 
innate barbarism and innate civilization are forever 
irreconcilable, that Christian civilization must inevit- 
ably triumph over the mighty political engine of Rome. 
Revelation was written by John, the Prophet of 
Ephesus. There is no evidence to show that it was 
written by the Apostle John. It is a hybrid document, 
part letter, part apocalypse. The letters are designed 
to console and edify the churches mentioned during 
the Prophet's absence. The task of the Prophet is to 
steel his friends against the cruelty of Roman and 
Jewish persecution. The key-note of the letters is that 
"he that overcometh shall sit with me on my throne" 
(Rev. 3:21). It is a courageous exhortation to stead- 
fastness and endurance. The opening vision is that 
of God on his throne with the Roll of Destiny in his 
right hand, sealed tightly with seven seals on its edge, 
and written so that the words overflow on the back of 
the manuscript (Rev. 5:1). The contents are a secret, 
but full of meaning. It contains God's program for 
the world, and must be opened seal by seal to be real- 
ized ; and to open it thus will bring the program to 
pass, since it is the will of God. Great grief is mani- 
fest because none will venture near enough to open 
the seals, until the Lamb appears, and great exulta- 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 193 

tion follows. As the seals are opened, great (contem- 
porary) events transpire, familiar to the readers of the 
book. The vast majority of able Bible scholars believe 
in the PRETERIST interpretation of the book, — 
namely, that Revelation deals almost exclusively with 
the events of its own time, particularly at the fall of 
Jerusalem, 70 A. D., and that practically all of them 
were fulfilled within the lifetime of its first generation 
of readers. 

Like the Gospel of Mark, Revelation opens with the 
notorious "floating nominative" construction with a 
relative clause appended. 1 1 : 3 says : "Blessed is he 
who reads and they who hear," showing that it was 
designed for public reading in Christian congregations. 
The author expressly says that his work is a "proph- 
ecy" (1:3), and that it is going to deal with "things 
which must SHORTLY come to pass" (1:1). The 
author is very solicitous that no one tamper with his 
manuscript (Rev. 22:18, 19), which was a common 
literary practice of the day. In Greek, Revelation is 
the most ragged and blundering of all New Testament 
documents. The simple elegant Greek of the Fourth 
Gospel could not possibly be from the same hand. The 
English translators of 161 1 have rendered it info a 
magnificent style totally unlike the original. 

Chapter 1. — To John the Prophet in his lonely exile 
on the Isle of Patmos (Rev. 1 : 9) have come seven 
messengers from seven churches of Asia Minor (Rev. 
1 : 11). Some of these churches have not been faring 

1 The first five lines of Tennyson's "The Passing of Arthur" 
is still another classical example of the "floating nominative" 
construction. 



i 9 4 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

well in the absence of their beloved counsellor. As if 
to anticipate John's anxiety, a sudden trance, or in- 
spired exaltation, or, as John himself states it "I was 
in the Spirit on the Lord's day" (Rev. 1 : 19), tells him 
what messages to return to the bishops ("angels") of 
the respective churches. He sees Jesus standing before 
him clothed as the High Priest, in the light of the 
seven golden lamps (or "candlesticks"), unveiled as 
the watcher and guardian of his numerous churches, 
perceiving their shortcomings and errors as well as 
their commendable traits, and ever ready to rebuke or 
encourage, as the specific case may require. 

Chapter 2. — To the church of Ephesus John was re- 
quired to threaten to remove its authority as a Chris- 
tian organization (Rev. 2:5), if it showed any more 
of a tendency to lean toward false doctrine ; the church 
at Smyrna was commended for its orthodoxy in the 
midst of poverty and persecution; the church of Per- 
gamos was Christian in name only (2:13), but was 
indulging in idolatrous sins and practices ; as was also 
the church of Thyatira. 

Chapter 3. — The church of Sardis was backsliding 
into the state of the church of Pergamos, Christian in 
name only (3 : 1 ) ; the church of Philadelphia is com- 
mended for its steadfastness (3:83); and the church 
of Laodicea, because it was wealthy, had fallen into a 
lukewarm condition toward promoting Christianity 

(3:i5-i7)- 

Chapter 4. — In the Spirit : A Vision of God on His 
Throne. 

Chapters 5-1 1. — The Breaking of the Seven Seals: 
(Rev. 5:9). 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 195 

Seal No. 1 : (Rev. 6: 1, 2) represents the Parthian in- 
vasion to help the Romans attack the doomed land of 
Palestine and the city of Jerusalem. The Parthians 
were the only ancient people Rome was unable to con- 
quer. Parthia lay northeast of the River Euphrates, 
the domain of ancient Persia. Crassus and Antony 
failed disastrously in an effort to subdue them. In the 
time of Nero Rome and Parthia became allies, and 
continued thus for many years. Parthian chieftains 
always rode on "sacred" white horses, and they and 
their followers were deadily aims with bow and arrow. 
In April, 67 A. D., Vespasian and a Roman army in- 
vaded Galilee, and as confederates their forces included 
40,000 Parthian cavalry. 

Seal No. 2: (Rev. 6:3, 4) represents the Romans 
under Vespasian's authority. 

Seal No. 3: (Rev. 6:5, 6) represents famine seiz- 
ing Jerusalem, as it did in a terrible manner, and sug- 
gests the leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, 
John of Gischala, appropriating the sacred oil and wine 
for food, which we know he did from history. 

Seal No. 4: (Rev. 6:7, 8) represents pestilence, the 
"fourth horseman of the apocalypse," which follows in 
the wake of prolonged war. 

Seal No. 5: (Rev. 6:9-11) represents the persecu- 
tion of the Christians, who were blamed for all na- 
tional misfortunes at that time. 

Seal No. 6: (Rev. 6: 12 to 8: 1, 2) represents the 
blotting out of Jerusalem and its temple by the Ro- 
mans in August, 70 A. D. 

Seal No. 7: (Rev. 8: 1 to chapter 12) introduces the 
Blowing of the Seven Trumpets: 



196 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Trumpet No. i : (Rev. 8: 6, 7) represents the devas- 
tation of Galilee ("the third part" of Palestine) by- 
Vespasian and armies in April, 67 A. D. 

Trumpet No. 2: (Rev. 8:8, 9) represents the naval 
battle on the Sea of Galilee the same year between the 
Romans and Jews, in which 6500 Jews perished and the 
lake was made a sickening puddle of dead bodies. 

Trumpet No. 3: (Rev. 8: 10, 11) represents John of 
Gischala, leader of the Zealots (anti-Romans), who 
poisoned the streams of drinking-water under the plea 
of military necessity. 

Trumpet No. 4: (Rev. 8: 12, 13) represents the final 
triumph of Roman arms in Galilee, and the retreat of 
the Jews southward toward Jerusalem. 

Trumpet No. 5: (Rev. 9:1-12) represents Satan 
("the star fallen from heaven to earth" ; Isaiah 14 : 12 ; 
Luke 10: 18) creating panic and confusion, and deeds 
of monstrous wickedness, as the history of this time 
reveals. 

Trumpet No. 6: (Rev. 9:13 to 11:15) represents 
the vast horde of Parthian invaders from the Euphrates 
valley, in four divisions. The number may be slightly 
exaggerated, but John says "I heard," indicating a 
rumor (Rev. 9: 16). Three bands of these operated 
in Galilee (9:18). Note in particular the references 
to the destruction of Jerusalem in 1 1 : 2, 8 and 9. 

Trumpet No. 7: (Rev. 11: 15 to 12) represents the 
establishment of Christianity as the universal religion 
in heaven and on earth. 

Chapter 12: The Vision of the Sun-Clad Woman, 
who typifies the Christian church, and the Dragon, or 
Satan, who seeks to destroy it. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 197 

Chapter 13: The Vision of the Leopard-Like Beast 
coming up out of the sea represents probably the re- 
lentless advance on and grasp of the city of Jerusa- 
lem by the Romans: the Second Beast (13: 11) com- 
ing up out of the land is false religion, emperor-wor- 
ship, anti-Christ doctrine, and heresy. The number 
666 (13: 18) is interpreted by Iranaeus, an old church 
father, to mean Rome, for the name Lateinos has the 
number 666, and Lateinos is common Greek for both 
the names of a nation and of an individual. It means 
the Latins, or Romans. It may mean "Nerone Caesar," 
for letters had then numerical values. An old inscrip- 
tion found in the ruins of Pompeii says : "The name of 
her I love is 347." 

Chapter 14: This chapter alludes to the fall of Jeru- 
salem, and the paving of the way thereby for the scat- 
tering of the Christians to use the world as the harvest- 
field of the Gospel. 

Chapters 15 and 16: introduce the Seven Vials of 
Wrath, which, like the Seven Seals and the Seven 
Trumpets, deal with practically the same events : 

Vial No. 1: (Rev. 16: 1, 2) may represent the per- 
secution of the Herodians and pro-Romans by the 
Zealots, or anti-Romans, under John of Gischala, "the 
mark of the beast" alluding to sympathy with Rome. 

Vial No. 2 : (Rev. 16: 3) represents the naval battles 
on the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, and the Mediter- 
ranean, in which thousands of Jews were slaughtered. 

Vial No. 3 : (Rev. 16:4-7) refers to the Jewish blood- 
shed on land, 67-70 A. D. 

Vial No. 4 : (Rev. 16 : 8, 9) may be taken either liter- 
ally or figuratively ; if the latter, it refers to the Roman 



198 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

government's unrelenting punishment of Jewish in- 
subordination. 

Vial No. 5: (Rev. 16: 10,, 11) is uncertain in mean- 
ing: "The seat of the beast" is here possibly Rome, 
to which Vespasian was compelled to return from 
Palestine to determine the occupancy of the throne, 
leaving his son Titus to subdue the Jews; possibly it 
is Caesarea, the Jewish seat of the Roman government ; 
possibly, but not probably, it is Jerusalem, where cer- 
tain Roman governors, like Pilate, had preferred to 
hold forth instead of in Caesarea. 

Vial No. 6: (Rev. 16: 12-16) refers to the fact that 
the River Euphrates, the boundary-line between the 
Roman and Parthian empires, did not exist (in a figur- 
ative sense) when the two combined to make war upon 
Palestine, 67-70 A. D. 

Vial No. 7: (Rev. 16:17-21) refers clearly to the 
destruction of Jerusalem, which appears under the 
odious appellation of "Babylon" many times in the 
book (14:8; 16: 19; 17: 5, etc.). 

Chapter 17. It is essential to notice sharply the two 
main metaphors of this chapter : the Scarlet Woman, 
Babylon (I Peter 5 : 13), drunk with the blood of mar- 
tyrs and her soul stained with crime and vice, is Jeru- 
salem; the Beast ON WHICH SHE SITS is Rome, 
the City of Seven Hills (Rev. 17:9). Jerusalem owed 
her strength and authority to Rome, who protected 
her from heathen invasion. The seven kings referred 
to in verses 10: 14 are the seven emperors, Augustus, 
Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, who have fallen ; 
the sixth is Vespasian ; the seventh, who "must con- 
tinue a short space," is Titus, who ruled two years. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 199 

The eighth is Domitian (v. 11). Verse 18 means that 
Jerusalem, aided and abetted by Rome, was constantly 
stirring up persecution against the church throughout 
the Roman empire. 

Chapter 18. This chapter is a funeral-dirge, or elegy, 
over the tragic fall of Jerusalem, August, 70 A. D. 
The scenes described were possibly witnessed by John, 
and verses 17 and 18 are autobiographical. Verses 12 
and 13 catalogue the plunder carried off by Titus to 
Rome, and John's list has been found to be quite accur- 
ate, for every article named is corroborated by the 
Jewish history of Josephus. 

Chapter 19. A Heavenly Celebration of the Fulfill- 
ment of God's Justice upon Jerusalem. 

Chapters 20, 21, and 22 describe the spread and ulti- 
mate triumph of the Christian church over all its ad- 
versaries, whether temporal or spiritual ; and for the 
former, ancient history from the time of Constantine 
the Great on verifies John's prophecy. For the latter, 
the abolition of great national evils in both the medi- 
aeval and modern world may testify, but there is yet a 
long road to travel. 

(a) Gog and Magog: (Rev. 20:8) are spoken of in 
Ezekiel 38 and 39. Gog is the Sultan of Turkey, who, 
with his Mohammedan barbarians, overran Asia Minor, 
including Syria and Palestine, capturing Jerusalem for 
the first time in 1077, and thus precipitated the Franco- 
British crusades of which all school-boys know. This 
Turkish invasion happened about a thousand years 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, 70, coming within 
seven years of John's prophecy (Rev. 20:7, 8). 

(b) The Temple in Heaven. In Revelation 11 :i 



200 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

John was required to measure the temple, with the 
purpose of preserving historically its details of size 
and structure. The temple on earth was then destroyed 
as described, and opened thenceforth to men in heaven 
(Rev. 11:19 and chapter 21). 

(c) The Two Witnesses: (Rev. 11:3-12) are sur- 
mised to have been James and Jude, authors of the 
Epistles of the New Testament bearing their names. 
On the former's monument is said to have been in- 
scribed: "He hath been a true witness." 

(d) The Beast and the False Prophet: (Rev. 19: 19, 
20) allude respectively to Rome and heresy, or anti- 
Christ. 

(e) The Tranquil New Heaven and New Earth is 
reflected in the language of Revelation 21 and 22 in 
direct contrast to the lurid, calamitous scenes of the 
preceding chapters. Its last sentences in particular 
are rare sentences of universal literature, making it 
rank along with Homer, Job, Shakespeare, Dante, and 
other great masterpieces. Francis Thompson, the emi- 
nent English poet and essayist, declares that the Book 
of Revelation reflects in its wording the scenic beauty 
of the isle of Patmos. The expression "And there was 
no more sea" (21: 1), indicates the deadly monotony 
inflicted on the mind by habitually living by the ocean, 
the effect so graphically portrayed by Tennyson in 
"Enoch Arden." Rev. 22 : 2 may reflect further the 
landscape of Patmos. The author of Revelation quite 
apparently lived in a hot climate if we may judge 
from 7: 16, where it is declared that in heaven "neither 
shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." What 
would an Eskimo think of such a description of heaven ? 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 201 

The Book of Revelation has been long used as the 
"Puzzle-Book of the New Testament." To this day it 
is refused a place in the canon of the Greek Orthodox 
Church. Many sects have based their tenets upon its 
prophecies, and it has given rise to many futile fancies 
in religion. Though the universe crashed into ruins, 
however, its composer had eternal, unshakable faith 
in the certain triumph of the Kingdom of God. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LITER- 
ATURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: 

Jiilicher, Adolf: (London, Smith, Elder & Co., 
1903). Translated into English by D. A. Ward, 
from the fourth German edition. Jiilicher is 
the prince of all New Testament commentators, 
a foremost leader of the liberal school of inter- 
pretation, and author of probably the best schol- 
arly introduction ever written. 

Bacon, Benjamin W. (An Introduction to the New 
Testament, Macmillan, 1900). By the foremost 
New Testament scholar in the United States, and 
professor at Yale University. A leading, scholarly 
authority of the liberal school. 

Bacon, Benjamin W. ("The Making of the New 
Testament," Home University Library, Henry 
Holt & Co., 1912). A briefer compendium, but 
painfully condensed and somewhat technical. 

Moffatt, James. (International Theological Li- 
brary Series, Scribner's, 191 1). One of the most 
powerful and influential commentators of the 
liberal school of interpretation. A ranking 
world authority. 

Peake, Arthur S. (New York, Scribner's, 1910). 
A work of the conservative school by an emi- 
205 



206 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

nent British authority. Tends to defer to tra- 
dition too much, and fails to come to the firmest 
possible grasp of the New Testament documents. 

6. Zahn, Theodor. (Translated into English by M. 

W. Jacobus from the third German edition. 
Scribner's, 1909.) Conservative and reaction- 
ary; the bulwark of the traditionalist school of 
interpretation. 

7. Von Soden, Baron. ("The History of Early Chris- 

tian Literature : The Writings of the New Tes- 
tament." Translated into English by J. R. 
Wilkinson. Williams & Norgate, 1906.) A mag- 
nificent work of the liberal school, by a late pro- 
fessor at the University of Berlin. A world au- 
thority of highest rank. 

8. Reuss, E. ("A History of the New Testament." 

Translated into English by E. L. Houghton from 
the fifth German edition. Houghton-Mifflin, 
1884.) A splendid authoritative commentary, 
now somewhat superseded by later research, but 
still standard. 

9. Wrede, W. ("The Origin of the New Testament." 

Translated into English from German by J. S. 
Hill. Harper's, 1909.) Liberal, progressive, il- 
luminating. 

10. Pfleiderer, O. ("Christian Origin." Translated 

into English from the German by D. Huebsch. 
New York, B. W. Huebsch, 1906.) A critical 
study of the animus of primitive Christianity as 
reflected in the New Testament documents. 

11. Wernle, P. ("The Beginnings of Christianity." 

Translated into English by G. A. Bienemann 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 207 

from the German. Williams & Norgate, 1904.) 
Liberal ; somewhat technical for beginners. 

12. Goodspeed, E. J. ("The Story of the New Testa- 

ment." University of Chicago Press.) A brief, 
scholarly estimate of the authorship and origins 
of every New Testament document, each in 
chronological order. Intended as a primer. 

13. Burkitt, F. C. "The Earliest Sources for the Life 

of Jesus": (Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 1910). 
An elementary critical treatment of the docu- 
mentary sources from which the facts of the 
life of Jesus have been derived, by an eminent 
scholar of the liberal school. His presentation 
of materials is simple and readable. 

II. PAULINE LITERATURE 

1. Wrede, W. ("Paul." Translated into English 

from German by E. Lummis. London, P. Green, 
1907.) Conceives Paul as the real founder of 
Christianity, and is therefore unbalanced, but 
contains much scholarly material. 

2. Weiss, J. ("Paul and Jesus." Translated into 

English from German by H. J. Chaytor. Har- 
per's, 1909.) Conceives Jesus'as the real founder 
of Christianity rather than Paul, and is better 
and more balanced than Wrede's treatise, to 
which it is respondent. 

3. Baur, F. C. ("Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, 

His Life and Work, Epistles and Doctrine." 
Williams & Norgate, 1876. Translated into 
English by A. Menzies from the second Ger- 



208 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

man edition.) A commentary that revolution- 
ized the whole scholarship of Paulinism. 
Other lives of Paul by Bacon, Shaw, Ramsay, Cony- 
beare and Howson, Wright, Eleanor Wood, 
Cone, Clemen, etc., are accessible in divinity 
school libraries and elsewhere. 

III. JOHANNINE LITERATURE 

i. Scott, E. F. ("The Fourth Gospel, Its Purpose 
and Theology." T. & T. Clark 1906.) The lead- 
ing authority on the Fourth Gospel and Johan- 
nine Epistles. A professor at the Union Theologi- 
cal Seminary, New York City. 

2. Bacon, Benjamin W. ("The Fourth Gospel in 

Research and Debate." Moffat, Yard & Co., 
1910.) A scholarly, incisive treatise, by the 
leading American authority. 

3. Schmiedel, P. W. ("The Johannine Writings." 

Translated into English by M. A. Canney from 
the German. A. & C. Black, 1903.) Coincides 
with Bacon in conclusions as to origins of the 
Johannine literature. 

IV. SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY 

1. Mathews, Shailer. ("The Church and the Chang- 
ing Order." Macmillan, 1907.) A sane, scien- 
tific discussion of the future status of the church 
as an institution in modern civilization, by the 
dean of the Divinity School, University of Chi- 
cago. 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 209 

2. Rauschenbusch, Walter. ("A Theology for the 

Social Gospel." Macmillan, 1917.) Rauschen- 
busch started on a popular basis the widespread 
study of social Christianity in America and 
abroad. Late professor in the Baptist seminary 
at Rochester, N. Y. 

3. Ibid. ("Christianizing the Social Order." Mac- 

millan, 1912.) An epoch-making discussion. 

4. Ibid. ("The Social Principles of Jesus." Asso- 

ciation Press, 1919.) A stimulating, brief trea- 
tise, the starting-point of the author's later con- 
ceptions. 

5. White, Bouck. ("The Call of the Carpenter." 

Doubleday, Page & Co., 191 1.) A brilliant but 
radical and one-sided conception of Jesus of 
Nazareth as the champion of world labor. A 
socialistic treatise, but has run through several 
editions. 

6. White, Bouck. ("The Carpenter and the Rich 

Man." Doubleday, Page & Co., 1913.) A bril- 
liant but radical and one-sided treatment of the 
leading parables of Jesus from the socialistic 
standpoint. 

7. Peabody, Francis G. ("Jesus Christ and the So- 

cial Question." Macmillan, 1900.) A masterly 
popular treatment of the social principles of 
Jesus by the Plummer Professor of Christian 
Morals, Emeritus, Harvard University. 

8. Davenport, F. M. ("Primitive Traits in Religious 

Revivals." Macmillan, 1905.) The psychology 
and sociology of revivalism as a primitive sur- 
vival type of nervous instability. 



210 THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

9. Cutten, G. B. ("The Psychological Phenomena of 
Christianity." Scribner's, 1908.) A treasury of 
information on nervous aberrations manifested 
in primitive types of religious worship. 

10. Ames, Edward Scribner. ("The Psychology of 

Religious Experience." Houghton-Mifflin, 1910.) 
A scholarly work. Advocates salvation by edu- 
cation as the future Christianity. 

11. Ibid. ("The New Orthodoxy." University of 

Chicago Press, 1918.) Portrays religion as an 
organic and integral part of everyday life. 
Treatments of the social implications of Christianity 
are too numerous to mention, but the preceding will 
serve to start the beginner aright who is chiefly inter- 
ested in this aspect of religion. 

V. THE RESURRECTION 

1. Bowen, Clayton R. ("The Resurrection in the 
New Testament." G. P. Putnam's, 191 1.) The 
most scholarly and comprehensive treatment of 
the subject in English, and freest from dog- 
matic preposessions. 

VI. TEXTUAL PROBLEMS 

1. Smyth, J. Paterson. ("How We Got Our Bible." 

James Potts & Co., 1899.) Deals with the manu- 
scripts now in existence from which the Bible 
is taken, particularly the Vatican, Sinaitic, and 
Alexandrian Mss. 

2. Bowen, Clayton R. ("The Gospel of Jesus." 



THE CONTENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 211 

1916.) The historic residuum of the Gospels, 
with passages of doubtful historicity elimin- 
ated. 
To this group belongs also the various so-called gos- 
pel "harmonies" with the same materials from the 
Synoptics arranged in three parallel columns for syn- 
chronous comparison, of which Huck's is a standard 
work. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Acts, 3, 12, 22, 104, 122, 125, 

161-166, 178, 179. 
Ames, E. S., 124, 210. 
Ancestry of Jesus, 38. 
Angelology and demonology, 

38, 62, 107. 
Antichrist, 139-141, 191, 200. 
Antinomians, 187. 
Annas, 32, 91. 
Antioch, 

—in Pisidia, 128, 152. 

—in Syria, 127, 129, 150. 
Apocalypse, 4, 140, 191-201. 
Apollos, 144, 151, 180. 
Apostolic Council, 129, 153, 156. 
Archimedes, 164. 
Aristides, 120. 
Ascension of Jesus, 104. 
Asia, 133, 193. 

Athens, Paul at, 135, 141, 142. 
Augustine, 124. 



B 



Babylon, 182, 198. 

Bacon, B. W., 8, 16, 29, 31, 74, 

86, 106, 136, 161, 170, 172, 

183, 205, 208. 
Baptist, John the, 41-44, 73, 

144, 151, 186. 
Beloved Disciple, the, 24, 31. 
Berea, Paul at, 135. 
Bibliography, 205-211. 
Birth of Jesus, 37. 



Blindness (miracles), 68. 
Booth, Gen. William, 43. 
Bowen, C. R., 61, 62, 86, 103, 

106, 179, 210. 
Bradford, William, 120. 
Browning, 141. 
Bunyan, 59. 
Burton, E. D., 179. 



Csesarea, 93, 122, 162, 171, 198. 

Caiaphas, 91, 124. 

Canon, 9, 180. 

Centurion's servant healed, 65. 

Chalmers, Thomas, 120. 

"Cinderella Gospel," 17. 

Clement of Alexandria, 24, 179, 

180. 
Coin in fish's mouth, 73. 
Colossians, 166-171. 
Colossians-Ephesians Problem, 

166. 
Corinth, Paul at, 142, 148, 150, 

160. 
Corinthian Epistles, 144-150. 
Cowper, 99. 
Crucifixion of Jesus, 96, 105. 



Dante, 200. 
Deismann, 171. 
Demetrius, 150. 
Demonology (see Angelology") 
— miracles of, 62. 



215 



2l6 



INDEX 



Diary of Acts, 131. 
Doketism, 29, 184, 187. 
Domitian, 182, 187, 191, 199. 



Ecclesiastes, 32. 
Elder, John the, 186. 
Empty tomb, 104-107. 
Ephesians, 168-170. 
Ephesus, 

—note to, 160. 

—Paul at, 150, 151, 170, 179. 
Epistles, 

— cosmic, 168. 

—general, 138, 169, 177-188. 

—Pauline, 135-172. 

—prison, 166-172. 
Eschatology (end of world), 
21, 107-109, 137, 139, 147, 
184. 
Eusebius, 17. 



Feeding the multitudes, 72. 
Felix, 162. 

Festus, Porcius, 163. 
Fig-tree cursed, 72. 
Fourth Gospel, 24-32. 



Gaius, 

—of Corinth, 143. 

—of 3rd John, 186. 
Galatians, 151-158. 
Gamaliel, 122, 160. 
Gibbon, 101. 
Gnosticism, 29, 187. 
Goguel, 3,71. 

Goodspeed, E. J., 86, 137, 165, 
179. 



Hale, Nathan, 120. 
Harnack, 20, 138, 180. 
Hausrath, 148. 



Healing the sick, 64-69. 
Hebrews, Epistle to, 179. 
Herod, 

— Agrippa, 163. 

— Antipas, 95. 

—the Great, 32, 40. 
Homer, 133, 200. 
Horace, 133. 
Holtzmann, 86, 168. 
Hughes, Charles E., 120. 



Incarnation, 26-30. 
Infancy, 

— Narrative of Luke, 19, 23, 
88. 

— of Jesus, 37. 
Iranaeus, 197. 
Issue of blood (miracle), 66. 



Jairus' daughter restored, 69. 
James, 

—Apostle, 31, 32, 57, 156, 
176. 

— brother of Jesus, 37. 

—Epistle of, 181. 
Jerusalem, 

—Church at, 129, 131. 

—Council at, 129, 153. 
Joan of Arc, 120. 
Job, 200. 
Johannine Tradition, 3, 16, 24- 

32, 74, 87, 185-187, 208. 
John, 

—Apostle, 24, 25, 32, 57, 179, 
186. 

—Baptist, 41, 72, 95, 144, 151, 
186. 

—Elder, 186. 

—Epistles of, 185, 188. 

—Mark, 17, 21, 127. 

—Prophet, 186, 192, 193. 

—Revelation of, 7, 13, 187. 
Josephus, 105, 199. 
Judaism, modern, 85. 
Judaizers, 129, 153-159, 167. 



INDEX 



217 



Judas Iscariot, 88, 90, 186. 
Jude, Epistle of, 4, 6, 37, 183, 

186, 188. 
Jiilicher, Adolf, 137, 160, 169, 

182, 205. 
Julius Caesar, 152, 165. 



K 



Kingdom of God, 27, 46-51, 55, 

94, 108. 
Kingsley, Charles, 170. 
Koheleth, 32. 
Kohler, 86. 
Knox, 120. 



Lake, 171. 
Lanciari, 166. 
Laodicea, 127, 184, 194. 
Last Supper, 88. 
Law, 50, 108, 154-158. 
Lazear, J. W., 120. 
Leprosy (miracles), 67. 
Lessing, 60. 
Lincoln, 120. 
Lisco, 171. 
Logos, 28. 
Luke, 

— Acts (q.v.), 

—Evangelist, 22, 132, 164. 

—Gospel of, 3, 11. 15, 17, 19, 
22, 37, 47, 50, 64-66, 69, 71, 
73, 75, 88, 187. 
Luther, 32. 87, 120, 180, 182. 
Lydia, 133. 

M 

Marcion's Canon, 180. 
Marcus Aurelius, 120. 
Mark. 
—Evangelist, 17, 21, 127. 
—Gospel of, 3, 7. 11, 16-19, 
21, 33, 63, 64, 105, 106, 187. 
— Leaves Paul and Barnabas, 
127. 



Matthean Tradition, 16. 
Matthew, 

—Evangelist, 16, 20, 55, 106. 

—Gospel of, 3, 10, 15, 16-21, 
45, 50, 88, 106, 179, 187. 
McGiffert, 137, 169. 
Missionary Journey, 

—First, 126-129. 

—Second, 131-150. 

—Third, 150-160. 

—Fourth, 178, 179. 
Moffat, 137, 169. 
Montefiore, C. F., 85. 

N 

Nature-miracles, 71-74. 
Nero, 140, 165, 195. 
Norden, 169. 



Offering for poor, 131, 161. 
Onesimus, 167, 170. 
Origen, 24, 179, 180. 



Palestine, 114, 115. 

Papias, 17. 

Parables, 74-84. 

Parallelizing influence, 18, 72, 

73. 
Paralytic man (miracle), 67. 
Parousia, 21, 107-109, 137, 139, 

147, 184. 
Passover, 89, 100. 
Pastoral Epistles, 177-179. 
Patmos, 193, 200. 
Paul, 

— activity against Christians, 
123. 

—birth, 121. 

— conversion, 124. 

— martyrdom, 166, 179. 

— parentage, 121. 
Peabody, F. G., 59, 209. 
Pergamos, 194. 



2Ii 



INDEX 



Peter, 

—Apostle, 17, 18, 55, 69, 70, 
86, 90, 91, 92, 101, 130, 182, 
183. 
— confession of, 84. 
—Epistles, 182-184. 
— mother-in-law healed, 66. 
— source of Mark's Gospel, 
17, 18. 
Petrine Tradition, 3, 17, 18, 70, 

182-184. 
Pharisees, 43, 51, 74-84, 87, 91, 

98, 122, 123. 
Philadelphia, 194. 
Philemon, 167, 170. 
Philippi, Paul at, 133. 
Philippians, 133, 172. 
Pick, Bernard, 128. 
Pilate, Pontius, 32, 93-96, 106, 

198. 
Plato, 30, 137. 
Pliny, 127. 
Prayer, 51-55. 
Precepts, 3, 10, 14, 47. 
Preface of Luke, 23. 
Priscilla, 143, 150, 151, 180. 
Prologue of John, 28. 
Proseucha, 133. 

Q 

Q-material, 19, 45, 50, 75. 



R 



"Reconciliation Letter," 148- 

150. 
Renan, Ernest, 20. 
Repentance, 43. 
Restoring the dead, 69-71. 
Resurrection, 86, 100-107. 
Revelation of John, 3, 7, 13, 

140, 187, 191-201. 
Romans, Epistles to, 3, 159, 

188. 
Rome, 22, 33, 37, 45, 48, 90, 

93, 120, 122, 140, 159, 160, 

165, 171, 179, 182, 191-201. 



Saliva miracles, 64, 65. 
Sanhedrin, 91. 
Sardis, 194. 
Satan, 

— kingdom of, 48. 

— tempts Jesus, 44. 
Scott, E. F., 30, 208. 
Second Coming (see Parousia). 
Seleucia, 127. 
Sergius Paulus, 127. 
Sermon on the Mount, 49-55. 
Seven words of cross, 99. 
Shakespeare, 84, 137, 177, 200. 
Shylock, 121. 
Signs, (miracles), 61, 74. 
Smyrna, 194. 
Smyth, J. P., 105, 210. 
Socrates, 30. 

"Sorrowful letter," 148, 149. 
Stephen, 123, 124. 
Synoptic Gospels, 14-23. 
Swift, 88. 



Tennyson, 193, 200. 

Thessalonians, Epistles to, 135- 
141. 

Thessalonica, Paul at, 134. 

Thompson, Francis, 200. 

Thyatira, 194. 

Tiberius, 198. 

Timothy, 131, 132 (see Pas- 
toral Epistles). 

Titus, 129, 131, 156, (see Pas- 
toral Epistles). 

Tolstoy, 185. 

Toussaint L'Ouverture, 120. 

Transfiguration, the, 86. 

Triumphal Entry, the, 86-88. 

Trial of Jesus, 90-96. 

Twain, Mark, 17. 

Twelve, the, 55. 



Vespasian, 191, 195, 196, 198. 



INDEX 



219 



Von Soden, H., 137, 168, 169, Wise, S. S., 85. 



206. 



W 



Walking on the water, 72. 

Washington, 120. 

Wellhausen, 86. 

Wesley, 120. 

Widow's Son of Nain, 70. 

Williams, Roger, 120. 



Withered hand (miracle), 66. 
X 

Xavier, Francis, 120. 
Xenophon, 30. 
Xerxes, 133. 



Zahn, Theodor, 152, 169, 206. 



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